2025 No. 1 Document pushes productivity, scales back food security rhetoric
China's top leaders are doubling down on efforts to boost farm productivity.
On Sunday, the Party Central Committee and State Council released the 2025 No. 1 Document, outlining key priorities for rural policy for the year.
ICYDK: For 22 years in a row, the Party's first policy document of the year has focused on agriculture, farmers, and rural development – a sign of how highly the Party center prioritizes rural issues.
As in the 2024 No. 1 Document, the latest doc emphasizes improving yields – a key measure of farming productivity – as the top agricultural policy priority for the year. To that end, it instructs officials to:
- Continue efforts to increase grain and oilseed yields and improve farming efficiency
- Improve monitoring and speed up response to natural disasters like floods, droughts, and pest and disease outbreaks that threaten farm output
- Support the adoption of new technologies – like advanced crop varieties, new farm equipment, and AI – in pursuit of "new agricultural productivity"
Notably, the doc significantly scales back the language around food security – mentioning it only once in a laundry list of priorities in the introduction.
- That's a big change from recent iterations of the doc, which have featured extensive discussion of the issue in the wake of COVID-related disruptions to farming, food distribution, and trade.
ICYMI: We first flagged this shift in December when food security failed to make the Central Economic Work Conference readout for the first time in four years.
Get smart: In recent years, food security-related fears drove a surge in grain imports to bolster stockpiles.
- As the freakout subsides, grain reserve levels – and related imports – will fall.
Get smarter: Beijing's focus on raising yields has already delivered a big way, with a record-breaking 2024 harvest.
- Domestic production of key crops, including grains and oilseeds, is set to soar again this year.