How Xi offers solution to ensuring global food security

Aerial photo taken on March 28, 2022 shows farmers working in the fields in Xinghuliu Village, Jiazhai Township of Liaocheng City, east China's Shandong Province. [Photo by Zhao Yuguo/Xinhua]

by Xinhua writer Zhao Wencai

BEIJING -- Global food security has long been a matter of concern for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has on multiple occasions urged concrete actions and public awareness in ensuring food security for all humanity.

In a Special Address at the 2022 World Economic Forum Virtual Session in January, Xi pointed out that "difficulties are mounting in food security ... and other areas important to people's livelihoods," stressing that "we need to bridge the development divide and revitalize global development."

Addressing the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2021, Xi proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and called on the international community to strengthen cooperation in such areas as poverty alleviation and food security.

A staff member packs up leftover hot-pot stock for customers at a hot-pot restaurant in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 7, 2020. [Xinhua/Li Mengxin]

In a congratulatory letter to the International Conference on Food Loss and Waste held in September 2021, Xi said food security is a fundamental issue concerning the existence of humanity and reducing food loss is an important way to ensure food security.

In the letter, Xi expressed the hope that all parties would work together and jointly implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and make contributions to the elimination of famine and poverty, global food security and the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

Under Xi's leadership, China, having successfully eliminated absolute poverty within its borders, has been making contributions to global efforts to address food shortage and alleviate poverty.

With its remarkable achievements in ensuring domestic food security, China has actively shared its experience with the rest of the world.

At the end of 2021, China had facilitated over 1,500 technology transfers across the world in fields such as crop production, animal husbandry, farmland water conservation, and agricultural products processing, which has benefited over 1.5 million farmer households.

Elly Ligate, a senior lecturer, researcher and national Juncao technological consultant at Sokoine University of Agriculture, shows the Juncao grass during a workshop on "Applications of Juncao Technology and its Contribution to the Achievement of Sustainable Agriculture and the Sustainable Development Goals in Tanzania" in Kinondoni District, outskirts of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on March 10, 2022. [Photo by Herman Emmanuel/Xinhua]

The China-developed Juncao technology is a case in point. Juncao, which literally means "mushroom" and "grass," can be used to grow edible mushrooms.

In today's Papua New Guinea, the particular breed of grass cultivated by Chinese scientists and recommended by President Xi two decades ago has lift tens of thousands of local people out of poverty.

In Madagascar, the hybrid rice provided by China has helped eliminate hunger among local people. In Cuba, the seeds of Moringa brought by China as a gift have grown into tangible fruits for local people, largely enriching their daily diet. In South Sudan, China has donated thousands of tons of rice as part of emergency food assistance program to the east African nation.

Dr. Anwar Ali (R) from Pakistan studies in the tissue culture lab with his tutor Gao Jianwei at the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 7, 2022. [Xinhua/Guo Xulei]

In countries including those along the Belt and Road, China has enhanced agricultural investment and cooperation, and provided assistance to improve the production capacity of many developing countries.

Even though the country's "1.4 billion people are eating well with a great range of choices," China has pledged in a white paper on food security that it "will do all it can to make the international food supply more secure, stable and rational in order to better safeguard the food security of our world."

Speaking highly of the progress China has made in ensuring domestic food security, U.S. World Grain magazine once commented that China plays an important role in global food security, adding that all countries have vowed to make domestic food security a top priority, but no country has been more committed to this goal in recent years than China.