Multidimensional synergistic adaptation enhances the systemic resilience in China’s food security

How to manage the compounding risks to national food security is a major issue of global concern. China, as the world's largest producer of staple foods, has steadily strengthened its food security level, profoundly impacting global food systems. In this review, we propose a systemic resilience framework (the ability to predict, absorb, rebound from and adapt to disruptions) to analyze the evolution of China's food security and explore its driving factors and multidimensional adaptations. China's food security resilience has progressed through three distinct stages: low resilience (achieving basic sufficiency), medium resilience (achieving nutritional adequacy) and above-medium resilience (embracing sustainability). Multidimensional synergistic adaptation-integrating agricultural, climatic, socioeconomic and land-use strategies-has been key to these achievements. While agricultural advancements have significantly bolstered China's food security, the growing pressures of climate change threaten to undermine these achievements. We project that China's staple food self-sufficiency will remain above 98%, yet the overall food balance is expected to tighten under the combined pressures of dietary shifts and resource constraints. To better enhance the systemic resilience in China's food security, China can buffer climate- and water-related shocks by expanding high-standard farmland, ease resource and demand pressures by enforcing anti-food-waste laws, strengthen soil and water resilience through nature-based solutions, and dampen trade volatility with integrated climate-market early-warning systems. Insights from China's experience provide targeted levers for enhancing food-system resilience elsewhere.

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Publication Details

Journal
National Science Review
Published
2025-12-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaf587
Primary Topic
Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Multidimensional synergistic adaptation enhances the systemic resilience in China’s food security

Sien. Li, Hanchen Wang, Peter Havlík, Tao Lin et al.
National Science Review
Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
article

Multidimensional synergistic adaptation enhances the systemic resilience in China’s food security

Sien. Li, Hanchen Wang, Peter Havlík, Tao Lin, Yang Lu, J. Chen, C. S. Wang, Yujie Liu, Ermei Zhang, Junjie Liu, Jiahao Chen, Wei Xie, J. Andrew Zhang, Christoph Müller, Kang Shaozhong, Jikun Huang, Wenjing Cheng, Josep Penuelas, Yuhao Zeng, Yong-guan Zhu, Shuyuan Huang, Bing Yu, Qinghua Tan, Xuhui Wan, Jinfeng Chang, Jonas Jägermeyr, Yan Zhu, Da Lv, Tao Pan, Shilong Piao, Wenbin Wu
article en

Abstract

How to manage the compounding risks to national food security is a major issue of global concern. China, as the world's largest producer of staple foods, has steadily strengthened its food security level, profoundly impacting global food systems. In this review, we propose a systemic resilience framework (the ability to predict, absorb, rebound from and adapt to disruptions) to analyze the evolution of China's food security and explore its driving factors and multidimensional adaptations. China's food security resilience has progressed through three distinct stages: low resilience (achieving basic sufficiency), medium resilience (achieving nutritional adequacy) and above-medium resilience (embracing sustainability). Multidimensional synergistic adaptation-integrating agricultural, climatic, socioeconomic and land-use strategies-has been key to these achievements. While agricultural advancements have significantly bolstered China's food security, the growing pressures of climate change threaten to undermine these achievements. We project that China's staple food self-sufficiency will remain above 98%, yet the overall food balance is expected to tighten under the combined pressures of dietary shifts and resource constraints. To better enhance the systemic resilience in China's food security, China can buffer climate- and water-related shocks by expanding high-standard farmland, ease resource and demand pressures by enforcing anti-food-waste laws, strengthen soil and water resilience through nature-based solutions, and dampen trade volatility with integrated climate-market early-warning systems. Insights from China's experience provide targeted levers for enhancing food-system resilience elsewhere.

National Science ReviewVol. 13(2)
Goddard Institute for Space Studies (US), Nanjing Agricultural University (CN), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (AT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Peking University (CN), Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN), Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (CN), Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (DE), Institute of Urban Environment (CN), Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications (ES), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (CN), Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences (CN), Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (CN), Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Institute of Soil Science (CN), State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science (CN), Nano Carbon (Poland) (PL), Shanghai Ocean University (CN), China Agricultural University (CN), Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (DE), Zhejiang University (CN), Columbia University (US)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Science Fund for Creative Research Groups, Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Youth Innovation Promotion Association
Zero hunger
Openalex Percentile: Top 37%
Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
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