China's Five-Year Plan Prioritizes Modern Breeding Techniques for Agriculture

China revealed its initial policy statement regarding the new Five-Year Plan which focused on rural revitalization and agriculture modernization.

The previous Five-Year Plan, which ended in 2020, was focused on eradicating extreme poverty in the country. With the new Plan, the priority has shifted from rural work to modernization of the rural economy, particularly in building infrastructure for information technology, promoting agricultural technologies, and building modern breeding systems. Their focus on food security has been strengthened as well.

The 2021-2025 plan, which is stated in the "No. 1 central document", highlights the following tasks and targets to modernize agriculture:

• ensure the supply of grain and major agricultural products, including maintaining the planting area of grains, enhancing yield per unit area, speeding up the development of the modern breeding system, fostering sustainable aquaculture, and maximizing agricultural products trade;
• fortify the protection, development, and utilization of agricultural germplasm resource and speed up the application of S&T projects involving biological breeding for agriculture;
• maintain at least 120 million hectares of arable land with high-standard farmlands producing high and stable yields regardless of drought and flood; and
• reinforce the support for modern agriculture by science, technology, and equipment, create agricultural modernization demonstration zones with a target of 500 by 2025, and advance the green development of agriculture.

Read more from China's State Council website (in Chinese) and Pinduoduo.