China's Food Security Experiences and Lessons from the Recent Global Food Crisis

From 2006 to 2008, soaring global food prices impaired stability and development in the developing world. China, the most populous country, was able to provide sufficient food because of its domestic production. China's experiences and lessons of avoiding food crises are important for its future food policy and can serve as lessons for other emerging economies. This paper shows that China's food sufficiency is in danger of becoming lower than the target of 95 percent selfsufficiency. Based on the analysis of the current situation, challenges to China's food market can arise because of actions adopted by policymakers and inefficient allocation of agricultural resources.