A 10-year plan is underway in China to upgrade its entire farmland base, in terms of soil fertility, irrigation and drainage, resilience from disasters—i.e., infrastructure to moderate drought and flooding, and rehabilitation of degraded crop fields. By 2035, China intends to have transformed its entire permanent arable area into “high-standard” productive land.
This grand plan, for food security, runs concurrently with collaboration with Russia on agriculture. For example, there is the New Land Grain Corridor joint initiative between the two countries, featuring rail systems and crop storage, connecting Russia’s agriculture regions with China.
On March 30, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and the State Council officially announced the new farmland upgrade project, presenting two 5-year phases. By 2030, the aim is to have a total of 90 million hectares upgraded to high-standard land, compared with 66 million hectares as of 2023. Then by 2035, the plan is to have upgraded the entire arable land area, which in 2023, was reported to be 128.7 million hectares.
In addition to land improvement, to provide higher-yield, high-quality rice and wheat, there are goals for horticulture, livestock, and for raising living standards in rural areas. All kinds of different methods are needed to suit the differing regions, from the water-logged parts of the Yangtze Basin to the drylands of western China, to the black earth region of the northeast.
China has been carrying out cropland improvement over the recent years, but the nationwide commitment is new. In 2024, for example, China upgraded 5.3 million hectares of farmland; it developed water-saving irrigation for more than 667,000 hectares. China had a record grain output in 2024, of 706.5 million metric tons, a 1.6% year on year increase. By 2035 grain output will increase 10-20%, while inputs will decrease 10%, compared to what could be expected from ordinary cropland.
