At the session on “Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers in the Fast-Urbanizing Country” during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2015, CHEN Zhangliang, Vice-President of China Association for Science and Technology and former Vice Governor of Guangxi, stressed the importance of keeping at least 1.8-billion-mu (approx 11-billion-acre) plow land in order to ensure China’s food security.

CHEN believes that China should have full control over its own food issue. He even extends his statement that even 1.8 billion mu is less than sufficient, and that a more reasonable bottom-line should be 2.45 billion mu (approx 14.9 billion acre). Besides, he encourages Chinese farmers to go farming in other countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Vietnam and African where the land is cheaper and policies are friendly.