China is raising its target for grain output and adopting more systematic measures to safeguard food security amid increasingly frequent extreme weather events and growing global uncertainties.

According to a draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), China aims to lift its annual grain production target to 1.45 trillion jin (about 725 million tonnes) by 2030.

China's total grain output in 2025 reached 1.43 trillion jin, said Huang Sanwen, a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS).

Analysts said the new goal for 2030 comes after China's grain output remained stable above 1.3 trillion jin for several consecutive years and reached a new level of 1.4 trillion jin during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, setting higher requirements for comprehensive grain production capacity.

Why set a new target

The new goal underscores China's strong emphasis on food security, said Hu Peisong, a member of CPPCC and director general of the China National Rice Research Institute.

Despite repeated bumper harvests, feeding a population of more than 1.4 billion remains China's top priority, Hu noted.

He emphasized that as living standards improve, rising consumption of meat, eggs and dairy products has increased demand for feed grain, keeping overall supply and demand in a tight balance.

Hu also added that extreme weather events in recent years have increased the uncertainty of grain production, and a complex and volatile international situation, resulting from factors including regional conflicts and tariff threats, has made agricultural trade face uncertainties.

The focus on ensuring food security must always remain tight, and it is better to produce and store more than less, Hu noted.

How to achieve the target

The draft outline calls for protecting farmland, which is the foundation of food security.

The outline stresses that farmland shall be protected by exercising strict management over the process of offsetting cultivated land, advancing the high-quality development of high-standard farmland and strengthening the protection of black soil.

China has maintained the "red line" of 1.8 billion mu (around 120 million hectares) of arable land and has effectively protected permanent basic farmland. To date, 1 billion mu of high-standard farmland have been developed.

Han Fengxiang, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and chairperson of a farmers' cooperative in northeast China's Jilin Province, said farmland protection aims to ensure high-quality grain growth.

Both the draft outline and China's "No. 1 central document" for 2026 – the first major policy directive in the plan – stressed that technology remains central to stabilizing and increasing grain output.

The draft outline identifies that advanced technology and equipment shall be strengthened to support agriculture, while the central document highlighted expanding the use of drones and robotics to advance the integration of artificial intelligence technologies with agriculture, thus boosting agricultural production efficiency.

The key to China's sustained high grain harvest lies in agricultural science and technology, according to Huang, who also noted that in 2025, the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress in China exceeded 64%.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs showed that in 2025, the number of agricultural drones in use has topped 300,000 units, with their annual operation area surpassing 460 million mu. 

Hu Xiangdong from CAAS said agricultural technology has turned from fragmented application to a more systematic approach to enhancing agricultural efficiency through a combination of high-quality land, superior seeds, advanced machinery and effective methods.

The draft outline also stresses that disaster prevention and mitigation systems shall be strengthened as extreme weather events are on the rise.

Mechanisms to safeguard grain farmers' incomes shall be improved through coordinated policies on prices, subsidies and insurance, according to the document.