China’s food security has long been a top priority for the government. As the country tackles geopolitical tensions, climate change and changing domestic challenges, AI has the potential to reshape food security efforts and increase agricultural productivity.
Food security situation in China
Food security has long been a concern for Chinese authorities. Amidst geopolitical dynamics, climate change, trade tensions with the US (US), and changing domestic challenges, China prioritizes food security. The key focus of this is to boost local agricultural production, as reflected in many policies, plans and targets at both the national and state/local levels.
Despite efforts to increase local production, serious issues ranging from limited arable land and water resources to substantial soil pollution make it a difficult battle. In addition to concerns, China’s food self-sufficiency ratio plummeted. This has been from 93.6% in 2000 to 65.8% in 2020.
How AI can help
Benefits are important. According to the International Institute for Food Policy, AI could increase farm productivity globally by 67% by 2050, potentially lowering food prices by nearly 50% at the same time.
AI helps China tackle agricultural challenges by increasing agricultural efficiency and optimizing supply chains. Drones, satellites, and sensors allow real-time monitoring of crops, soils, and weather, while AI-driven diseases and pest predictions reduce crop losses and increase crop yields. Additionally, AI helps streamline the supply chain, improving storage and transportation efficiency and reducing food waste. Given that 6% of China’s total food production was “lost” during the storage, transport and processing of households and warehouses, such a technology is clearly needed, indicating the important role of AI in filling the farm-to-table gap.
The stronger use of AI in food production is consistent with the Chinese government’s broader strategy to become a global leader in artificial intelligence. As outlined in the 2017 New Generation AI Development Plan, China aims to lead in AI by 2030, focusing on breakthroughs in AI infrastructure, applications and industrial integration. This ambition is not limited to the areas of technology and infrastructure, but also extends to key areas such as agriculture, which is undergoing major transformation through digital tools.
Several steps have been taken to achieve this. At the national level, Beijing introduced digitalization as its core strategy for agriculture modernization. Plans such as the National Smart Agriculture Exprentation Plan (2024-2028) and the 14th Agricultural Modernization Plan (2021-2025) highlight the importance of using artificial intelligence, big data and remote sensing technologies to improve agricultural efficiency and productivity. These efforts are central to China’s vision of modernizing agriculture through digital tools, ensuring that the sector can meet future demands while increasing overall productivity.
Attacks will also be carried out at the local level. In Hebei, the online farming system “Xiongxiaonong” is equipped with AI. Developed by the Xiong’an New Area and China Telecom’s Agricultural and Rural Affairs Bureau, the country’s first large-scale agricultural-centric AI model equipped with Deepseek, tailored to Xiong’an’s agricultural specialty industry.
The model has proven effective. In just a month, the system helped Young Lake Xili Agricultural Park optimize tomato harvest by using AI to predict market prices, resulting in an increase in revenue of around 3,000-Yuan ($420) per farmer’s MU.
Elsewhere, in Sichuan, AI-driven robots integrated with DeepSeek-equipped high-resolution cameras in the Smart Green House have revolutionized pest management. Sending real-time crop images from the camera to the cloud for analysis resulted in more than 80% accuracy in pest identification. These successes demonstrate how AI technology promotes efficiency and increases agricultural productivity.
assignment
The challenge lies ahead. In addition to persistent privacy and ethics concerns, other concerns must be addressed.
In particular, China’s agricultural model, based primarily on small family farms scattered throughout the country, faces serious obstacles to modernization, particularly in the practice of adoption and standardization of agricultural technology. These issues hinder productivity and slow down the advancement of technology and biotechnology needed to meet growing food demand. This transition from fragmented agricultural structures to a more efficient, technology-driven sector remains in the early stages, especially in rural areas, and faces resistance.
Several initiatives, such as the National Agricultural Technology and Education Cloud Platform, aim to address these gaps through online training. However, stronger efforts are needed to promote broader agricultural innovation to ensure long-term food security.
Financial constraints also pose important barriers. Smallholder farmers who manage more than 70% of China’s farmland often suffer from limited access to credit. Research shows that 18.87% of family farms face financial disparities, with 26.20% of formal credit still unable to fully cover their needs, further deterring investment in agricultural technology.
Also, on a national scale, local governments are trapped in a vicious cycle of high debt and income reductions, due to part of the real estate crisis that has damaged income from land sales. The central government introduced a 10 trillion (US$1.4 trillion) debt relief package in the second half of 2024, a small step towards alleviating financial pressure. With total government debt expected to reach nearly 150% of gross domestic product by 2030, local governments face even greater fiscal tensions with financial stocks that could put investments in agriculture at risk.
The government has introduced measures in 2023, including subsidies of 10 billion yuan (US$1.38 billion) and these efforts cannot tackle deeper financial and structural issues to increase farmers’ income. However, without comprehensive reforms, China’s agricultural production targets continue to be risky.
To this end, working with the private sector, including key technologies in the country such as Pinduodu and JD.com, which have already expressed interest in the field (such as Huawei) and e-commerce platform companies, will help address concerns by deploying scalable, low-risk solutions that reduce the upfront costs for farmers and local governments. .
Such collaborations have helped drive much of the growth of China’s “AI Plus Agriculture” market. According to the Chinese think tank Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, the figures are projected to exceed 90 billion yuan by 2024, demonstrating that private sector innovation can sustainably bridge urban divisions.
Looking ahead
China’s food security challenges are complex. However, AI offers a transformative solution. From increasing agricultural productivity to minimizing waste and increasing supply chain resilience, AI could significantly improve China’s ongoing food security activities.
