During the period of its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), China intends to pursue a new development mode that will be "higher in quality, more efficient, fairer and more sustainable". Agriculture will be fundamental to this, given its significance to both food and environmental security.

China produces about three-fourths of the combined total value of production of all Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Globally, it is the largest producer of products such as potatoes, wheat, tomatoes, rice and apples. Its own agricultural products are supplemented by imports of agro-food products from all over the world to ensure food security.

But food security not only means enough food is available, but also the food that is available is not over-consumed or wasted. At present, industrialized Asia (China, Japan and South Korea) contributes 28 percent of the total food wasted in the world, which is estimated at 1.3 billion tons per year.