Agriculture

- Today, China produces 18% of the world’s cereal grains, 29% of the world’s meat, and 50% of the world’s vegetables.
- China is the world’s largest agricultural economy, and it ranks as the largest global producer of pork, wheat, rice, tea, cotton, and fish
- The value of China’s agricultural output is twice the U.S. total.
- China dramatically increased its trade dependence in agriculture, and it is currently the fifth largest exporter and fourth largest importer of agricultural products in the world.
- China’s substantial increase in fruit and vegetable production was a major factor behind its agricultural export growth.
- China is the world’s largest importer of soybeans and cotton, accounting for 60% of global soybean imports and 40% of cotton imports.
- China’s chemical fertilizer use has roughly doubled over the past two decades while pesticide use and mechanized inputs have increased even faster.
- China has slightly less agricultural land than the United States, but its chemical fertilizer use is now double that of the United States. China uses about one-third of the world’s nitrogen fertilizer and 31% of phosphate fertilizer on its 9% share of the world’s agricultural land. Unfortunately, the strong growth in chemical input use has resulted in considerable agricultural pollution.