China uses land consolidation and digital tools to boost food security

Chinese farmers in Pinghu, Zhejiang Province, are expanding their agricultural output by consolidating small land plots into larger blocks and adopting digital monitoring technologies.

Farmer Wang Shiping increased his farming operation from 100 mu to more than 600 mu by moving away from small, fragmented plots that were difficult to cultivate. The local government and infrastructure improvements helped facilitate this change by building concrete roads that allow trucks to drive directly into fields.

These improvements replaced muddy tracks that previously forced farmers to rely on manual harvesters to move crops off the land. Cheng Guishang and his digital agricultural service team provide farmers with satellite remote sensing and drone inspections to monitor crop health. This technology creates visual maps where different colors indicate growth quality, allowing farmers to view data on smartphones to manage their fields more precisely.

These efforts align with the national 15th Five-Year Plan, which focuses on agricultural science and equipment like robotics and drones to increase productivity. President Xi Jinping has prioritized food security as a fundamental interest for the country. The government's strategy involves protecting farmland and investing in technological innovation to ensure a stable food supply for nearly one-fifth of the world's population. These policies have contributed to a recent increase in grain output, which exceeded 1.4 trillion jin in 2024.