Dual-path agricultural resilience

In the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China should enhance its domestic grain output while simultaneously strengthening South-South cooperation in this field

Climate change poses a growing threat to global agricultural production, even as agriculture itself accounts for about 13.5 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. In response, climate-resilient agriculture is attracting increasing international attention. This integrated approach seeks to strengthen the agricultural system's adaptability to climate change and its resilience to climate-related disasters, through coordinated policies, institutional innovation and practical technology application.

In recent years, as a leading agricultural nation, China has accelerated efforts to build a climate-resilient agricultural production system. This drive gained particular momentum in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, during which the resilience of the country's agriculture increased markedly. Despite extreme weather events in 2024, including summer heat waves and heavy autumn rainfall, China's grain output has stayed above 700 million metric tons for two consecutive years — a historic achievement. These outcomes reflect tangible progress, which can be attributed mainly to progress in three key areas.

First, China has steadily strengthened its policy framework for agricultural disaster prevention and mitigation. The country has established a legal and regulatory system comprising more than 10 pieces of legislation, such as the food security law. Following the emphasis placed by the Central Rural Work Conference in late 2023 on the need to comprehensively enhance capabilities for agricultural disaster prevention, mitigation and relief, relevant policies have been further refined.

Second, China has consistently prioritized the strengthening of agricultural infrastructure. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the country has made substantial advances in modernizing large and medium-sized irrigation districts and enhancing farmland water conservancy. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period alone, central fiscal investments exceeded 700 billion yuan ($101 billion), driving the construction and improvement of 30.7 million hectares of high-standard farmland. This effort has expanded the national irrigated farmland area to over 72.7 million hectares. Currently, China operates 6,924 large and medium-sized irrigation districts collectively providing irrigation for over 40 million hectares of cropland. These infrastructure upgrades have markedly increased the climate resilience of the agricultural system.

Third, China is actively leveraging technology — particularly widespread mechanization — to build its disaster prevention and mitigation capacity. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the comprehensive mechanization rate for crop cultivation, planting and harvesting reached 76.7 percent, with wheat, rice and corn production having been fully mechanized. To solidify this foundation, 14,200 permanent emergency agricultural machinery service teams were established nationwide in 2025, creating a robust socialized service system.

Simultaneously, new quality productive forces in agriculture, such as smart agriculture large models and intelligent meteorological services, are developing rapidly. In 2025, the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress surpassed 64 percent. Building on this, the application of specific technologies — including smart irrigation, photovoltaic agriculture and new energy agricultural machinery — has delivered dual benefits: It has improved the efficiency of disaster prevention and mitigation while propelling the green transformation of agriculture and supporting national emissions reduction commitments.

While building climate-resilient agriculture at home, China is extending its efforts to the Global South, where agriculture is severely threatened by climate change. Through practical South-South cooperation — in line with the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity — it is helping enhance climate resilience in these regions, producing measurable outcomes.

China champions the interests of the Global South at multilateral forums. In response to unilateral actions from some developed countries that undermine equitable climate cooperation, it firmly upholds the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, along with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. At venues such as the UN Climate Change Conference, China consistently advocates greater international assistance to foster climate-resilient agriculture in the Global South.

China has stepped up its financial support for the Global South to tackle climate change, especially as some developed countries such as the United States reduce their commitments. Fulfilling its responsibility as a major country, China provided over 177 billion yuan in various funds between 2016 and 2025 and signed more than 50 memorandums of understanding on South-South climate change cooperation with 43 countries. Climate-resilient agriculture stands out as a key area of this cooperation.

China's adherence to the principle "teaching people to fish instead of giving them fish" has made capacity building a central pillar of its support. To date, over 300 projects have trained more than 10,000 participants from more than 120 countries. Training in areas such as disaster early warning and renewable energy in Laos and Ethiopia has tangibly boosted agricultural resilience.

China attaches great importance to strengthening the climate resilience of smallholder farmers. Through bilateral and multilateral cooperation, it promotes practical green technologies tailored to their needs. A key example is the China-International Fund for Agricultural Development South-South and Triangular Cooperation Facility, established in 2018. Climate resilience is one of the facility's key focus areas and it has implemented 20 projects across 40 countries. It has effectively introduced adaptable techniques such as "using bamboo as a substitute for plastic" and the "mulberry-dyke fishpond system", directly and indirectly benefiting over 100,000 farmers.

Despite these advances, challenges persist in China's climate-resilient agriculture development. Domestically, the agricultural disaster risk early warning and monitoring system requires further refinement. Investment in areas such as agricultural biodiversity conservation remains relatively low. And the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress still trails that of developed countries. The adoption of climate-resilient technologies among smallholders is also constrained by both willingness and capacity.

In terms of agricultural South-South cooperation, two key challenges stand out: converting China's domestic experience fully into accessible global public goods and enhancing the "parallel transfer" of simple, practical agricultural technologies to meet the immediate needs of partner countries.

In the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, China should leverage its existing achievements to further enhance its domestic climate-resilient agriculture while simultaneously strengthening and innovating its South-South cooperation in this field. Key efforts could focus on the following four priorities.

First, accelerate the development of a digital and intelligent disaster risk early warning and monitoring system for agriculture, extending these services to the grassroots level to meet the need for precise disaster prevention and mitigation.

Second, continue to enhance the conservation of agricultural biodiversity by implementing more climate-resilient ecological projects, thereby fully harnessing the fundamental regulatory role of ecosystems in mitigating disaster risks.

Third, steadily increase investment in agricultural science and technology, establish a robust socialized agri-tech service system and promote the widespread adoption of climate-resilient technologies among smallholders.

Fourth, actively foster innovation in South-South agricultural cooperation. China should deepen its participation in global food governance through multilateral platforms such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and BRICS, helping translate its experience into global public goods. Concurrently, it must promote simple, practical and replicable green technologies tailored to smallholders' needs in the Global South, while assisting in cultivating localized talent to fundamentally boost climate resilience.

Zhao Wenjie is an associate professor at the College of International Development and Global Agriculture at China Agricultural University. Zhong Xiaoping is a professor at the China Institute of Cooperative Economics at Anhui Agricultural University. The authors contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.