According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an arm of the United Nations, Chinese maize yields were 6.3 tonnes per hectare in 2020, compared with 10.8 in America, where GM varieties predominate. (Feed grains already account for much of the country’s total grain consumption.) More GM crops would help. As domestic meat consumption rises, and livestock and poultry breeding expands, the demand for feed grains such as maize and soyabeans is growing. Nationalists fear that a reliance on GM crops will leave China at the mercy of foreigners, especially Americans, who control much of the relevant technology and intellectual property.Ĭhina’s aversion to GM crops is causing other problems, though.

But there is also a uniquely Chinese element to the opposition. The public has expressed worries about “Frankenfood”, the danger of toying with nature and unverified health risks. Some of the concern is similar to that seen elsewhere. Though most scientists think GM crops are safe-and much of the world has been eating them for decades-they have faced stubborn opposition in China. Still, it would represent a rare loosening of China’s strict controls on GM crops.

If undertaken, the planting would cover less than 1% of the acreage China has earmarked for maize this year.

But according to Reuters, a news agency, the agriculture ministry is set to authorise the planting of 267,000 hectares of GM maize in selected counties across four provinces. Is China, the world’s largest soyabean market and second-largest maize market, at last ready to embrace genetic modification in agriculture? Not exactly.

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