With the official release of the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (FYP, 2026–30), “accelerating the building of a strong agricultural country” has been explicitly listed as one of five newly added goals for building a strong country, alongside tourism, finance, energy, and aerospace. This marks another milestone in China’s work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, following the 20th CPC National Congress, which formally proposed the strategy of “accelerating the building of a strong agricultural country” for the first time.

From foundational safeguard to strategic support

Building a strong agricultural nation is a practical response to global uncertainty. At present, global food security is under growing strain, while supply chain risks continue to rise. Cao Bin, an associate research fellow from the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that in this context, enhancing China’s capacity for agricultural self-sufficiency and security is not merely an economic issue, but a vital component of national security.

A strong agricultural country also represents a targeted effort to remedy a weak link in Chinese modernization. Imbalanced urban-rural development and insufficient agricultural and rural development have long constrained China’s overall modernization process. Wei Longbao, a professor from the China Academy for Rural Development at Zhejiang University, noted that China currently has approximately 451 million permanent rural residents and about 170 million agricultural workers. “The modernization of agriculture and rural areas is closely tied to the well-being of hundreds of millions of farmers and to the overall success and quality of Chinese modernization,” Wei said.

Strength in agriculture is a key pillar in building a new development paradigm. Agriculture is not only a fundamental component of domestic circulation, but is also deeply connected to the international market through agricultural trade and active participation in external circulation. Cao observed that the 15th FYP outline’s emphasis on building a strong agricultural country reflects that agriculture is no longer only a matter of “securing the bottom line,” but is also an active means of strengthening national strategic capacity and development resilience.

14th FYP achievements lay foundation

During the 14th FYP period (2021–25), China made historic progress in high-quality agricultural development, laying a solid foundation for accelerating the building of a strong agricultural country during the 15th FYP period.

The “anchor” of food security has grown more secure. China’s grain output has remained above 1.3 trillion jin (650 billion kilograms) for nine consecutive years and has ranked first in the world for many years running.

Technological and equipment support has continued to strengthen. By the end of 2024, the coverage rate of improved crop varieties had exceeded 96%. By 2025, the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress had surpassed 64%, while the comprehensive mechanization rate of crop plowing, planting, and harvesting reached 76.7%.

Agricultural infrastructure has improved significantly. By the end of the 14th FYP period, China had built more than 1 billion mu (about 66.7 million hectares) of high-standard farmland, accounting for roughly half of the country’s total cultivated land. Meanwhile, new formats such as agricultural product processing, rural e-commerce, and rural tourism have flourished, accelerating the transition from single-function production toward a multifunctional industrial system.

A socialized service system is rapidly taking shape. China’s basic national conditions dictate that building a strong agricultural country must organically connect modern agriculture with smallholder farming. By the end of 2024, 1.111 million business entities nationwide were providing socialized services, serving nearly 93 million smallholder households and covering an area of more than 2.29 billion mu.

Advantage shifting from scale to quality

The 15th FYP outline’s arrangements for building a strong agricultural country are not a simple continuation of the 14th FYP, but a systematic upgrade based on the new stage of development.

The outline proposes “enhancing comprehensive agricultural production capacity and quality efficiency.” Kong Xiangzhi, a professor from the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, stressed that for a country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, ensuring the supply of grain and major agricultural products must remain the top priority.

Hu Xiangdong, director of the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, noted that compared with previous plans, the 15th FYP places greater emphasis on the synergy across the modern agricultural industrial system, production system, and operational system, driving the expansion of agriculture from single production links to value creation along the entire chain.

Luo Biliang, a professor from South China Agricultural University, said that the 15th FYP outline’s emphasis on “transforming agriculture into a modern, large-scale industry” responds to the question of how to expand development space under resource constraints. Farmland protection and technological innovation address how to secure the baseline and raise the ceiling. The priority of “increasing output and production capacity, improving the production environment, and boosting income” responds to the need to balance security, sustainability, and people’s livelihoods. The call to “coordinate the development of science- and technology-driven agriculture, green agriculture, quality agriculture, and branded agriculture” addresses how to achieve intensive, inclusive, secure, and sustainable development.

In Wei’s view, the driving role of technological innovation is more prominent in the 15th FYP outline than in previous plans. As resource and environmental constraints tighten, reliance on traditional factor inputs alone can no longer sustain continued agricultural advancement. Wei suggested attaching more importance to the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements and the wider application of advanced equipment, so that technological variables can be translated into tangible growth for agricultural development.