Xi’s Food Security Drive Could End Up Backfiring for Chinese Farmers

  • China has less than one-tenth of the world’s arable land
  • Government seeks to boost soy output, displacing other crops
A machine seeding corn and soybean at a field in Liaocheng, China.Source: AFP/Getty Images
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After more than 30 years growing crops on the plains of northern China, a farmer who asked to be identified as Zhang is struggling over what to plant in the coming months.

President Xi Jinping’s government has just one answer: sow more soy.