Grain Self-Sufficiency Capacity in China’s Metropolitan Areas under Rapid Urbanization: Trends and Regional Differences from 1990 to 2015

Abstract

Urbanization brings significant changes to the urban food system. There is growing attention to food self-sufficiency in metropolitan areas for the concern of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation in food transportation. In China, grain self-sufficiency in metropolitan areas is also an important issue for grain security and involves coordination among contradictory policy goals. Based upon a comprehensive statistical analysis of 70 metropolitan areas in mainland China, we investigated the regional differences in the trends of grain self-sufficiency capacity in these areas from 1990 to 2015. The findings show a trend of decline in 3/4 of metropolitan areas, mainly located in the rapidly urbanizing eastern coastal areas and in the West. The increase of self-sufficiency mainly occurred in the North, in areas either specialized in grain production or originally low in grain self-sufficiency. The enlarging contradiction of decreasing supply and rising demand explained the sharp decrease in self-sufficiency, while the increase in self-sufficiency was due to the increase in supply. Land productivity contributed more significantly than land availability to supply change. There was a tradeoff between urban expansion (rather than economic growth) and grain production in metropolitan areas. Our results provide implications to future research and policy-making for grain production management in China’s metropolitan areas.

Spatial distribution and driving factors determining local food and feed self‐sufficiency in the eastern regions of China

“…When food self‐sufficiency is achieved, the increase in GDP with population density is lower. For example, Huang et al (2019) found that difficulty in achieving grain self‐sufficiency mainly occurred in eastern coastal areas, especially the megalopolises of the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, regions of China with fast economic growth and higher GDP. Apparently, there are trade‐off interactions between SDG1 [“No Poverty”] that related to GDP and SDG​2 [“Zero Hunger”] that related to food self‐sufficiency, as confirmed in previous studies (Deng & Gibson, 2019; Deng et al, 2015; Huang et al, 2019), and these should be carefully considered when developing policy.…”

“…Several studies have investigated China's food self‐sufficiency in its current situation and for the future at both the national level (Anderson & Strutt, 2014; Deng et al, 2019; Huang et al, 2017) and provincial level (He et al, 2017; Huang et al, 2019; Qi et al, 2015; Simelton, 2011). According to these studies, China will probably achieve food self‐sufficiency nationally or maybe in local regions today and in the future.…”

Systemic Design for Food Self-Sufficiency in Urban Areas

“…In this sense, international organizations such as the UN and the World Bank highlight the importance of reducing the impact that cities have and helping them contribute to sustainable development. The contributions of Blandford et al [102], Brombin [2], Ward [30], Huang et al [103], Loon et al [78], Nadal et al [66], Wesener et al [104], and Sapozhnikova and Ryazanova [95] identified some benefits in urban agriculture to support these issues, such as recycling and minimizing waste, efficiently using water, and conserving energy; reducing air pollution and soil erosion; urban…”

Exploring a Moderate Fallow Scale of Cultivated Land in China from the Perspective of Food Security

“…The grain output of China has increased for 12 consecutive years since 2004, and the grain production capacity has greatly improved [1]. However, the ecological environment has paid a large price, such as in the thinning of the black soil layer [2,3], soil erosion [4], soil acidification [5,6], excessive heavy metals in soil [7], and increased non-point source pollution [8,9].…”