Farm Subsidies to Undo Damage Done by Subsidies

The area planted in corn by Chinese farmers rose by 11.7 million hectares--45 percent--over the past decade. Officials in China have bragged for years that their subsidies and guaranteed minimum prices played the key role in boosting grain production. Now officials have discovered that the country is producing far more corn than it can consume.

Adding to the list of silly things that result from farm subsidies, Chinese agricultural officials have announced that they will now spend 3.5 billion yuan (US$ 540 million) to reduce corn production. The funds are for the so-called corn structural adjustment program, which they expect to cut corn planting by 20 million mu (1.3 million hectares) this year.

It's unclear exactly how the money will be spent. The program will fund 100 pilot counties where farmers will be encouraged to switch from mono-cropping corn to rotation with soybeans or minor grains, fodder crops, crops that are in high demand (reportedly peanuts), rice, and spring wheat. The Ministry of Agriculture expects soybean planting to increase by 6 million mu this year.

It is not clear whether these funds will support new subsidies promised to corn growers this year.

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Xi Jinping's Doctoral Thesis

Xi Jinping is the vice president and presumed next president of China but little is known about him. In this post the dimsums blog offers its contribution to the genre of Xi Jinping-ology by conveying Xi's decade-old views on agricultural markets. Ten years ago Xi Jinping wrote a thesis, "Tentative Study of Agricultural Marketization" (中国农村市场化研究) for a Doctor of Law degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing, a top breeding-ground for Chinese officials. The dimsums blogger has spent several hours poring over the 200-plus page tome to see what it reveals about Dr. Xi. The thesis is remarkably close to what China has been doing lately in agricultural policy, suggesting that Xi (or the person who actually wrote the thesis) has a major say in policy or is at least in agreement with what's being done. There is nothing adventurous, controversial (or insightful) in the thesis. It seems to be the work of a wonkish technocrat who is not prone to talk out of turn or wander from...

China's 2024 Ag Imports Shrank in Value

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Feed Boom & Cratering Grain Imports; China Leaves Us Guessing

In the first half of 2025 China increased its meat and egg production by a combined 1.58 million metric tons (mmt) from a year earlier, a moderate increase of 2.5%. Meanwhile, animal feed output during H1 2025 compiled from feed industry association reports increased by 14.5 mmt (+10 percent) from a year ago. China's 14.5-mmt increase feed output growth outpaced the 1.58-mmt growth in meat production by a ratio of 9:1. It's hard to make sense of these inconsistent figures. [note: The June 2025 feed industry association report has a 7.7% yoy growth rate for feed output which is inconsistent with the 10.1% growth shown here calculated by comparing data from monthly reports issued last year. Growth rates for complete feed were 8.1%, concentrates -1.5%; additives 6.9%. These inconsistencies are common in the feed industry association reports, a reason for doubting the accuracy of this data.] There is no boom in demand for feed ingredients to fuel a huge increase in feed production...

Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

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