Beijing targets global agtech leadership with innovation reform effort

By 2035, China wants to be the world leader in agricultural science and technology.

To achieve that goal, on Tuesday six ministries and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released plans to overhaul China's ag innovation system.

The document plans to fix structural issues that constrain agtech innovation, by:

• Consolidating government-led ag research that has been inefficiently scattered across multiple ministries and research institutes
• Pushing leading ag companies to increase R&D, and to collaborate with each other, and with government-funded institutes
• Ensuring talented young scientists have opportunities to study and work in agtech
• Enabling academic breakthroughs to be easily transferred to companies for further research, investment, and commercialization

The document flags self-sufficiency in agtech as a major goal.

• It targets achieving "a high level of agricultural technology self-sufficiency" by 2035.

Don't forget: Xi Jinping has been biggin' up the importance of agtech for years.

Get smart: China's government is targeting the same kind of paradigm shift in its agriculture sector as it achieved in the green energy and transport space.

• Getting there won't be easy – but given the high degree of political will, we wouldn't bet against Beijing on this one.