Food and agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, responsible for over one third of greenhouse gas emissions. Food systems are also a key driver of the biodiversity crisis threatening catastrophic loss of ecosystem functions and mass extinctions. Over 800 million people in the world are also hungry or food insecure. The creation of climate positive and resilient, biodiversity friendly, just systems of food and agriculture provisioning are therefore critical global challenges, and they cannot be addressed without engaging with China.
New era of China-UK relations
Relations with China have entered a precarious new era, defined in the UK by contestation and competition, and protecting security and managing risks. The UK Government’s Integrated Review Refresh 2023 presents China as ‘an epoch-defining systemic challenge’ and emphasises the need to protect UK interests, align with partners to defend values, but also to engage with China through diplomacy and people-to-people connections to address global challenges. Although not mentioned specifically in the IR refresh, the food and agriculture crisis is one such area where it is essential to work with China.
The UK has in the past understood this strategic imperative very well. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reached an agreement in 2009 at the UK-China Summit to work together on global food security. The UK supported the Sustainable Development Dialogues on issues such as forestry supply chains and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (2009-2015). The UK-China Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network (SAIN, set up in 2008) linked UK and Chinese researchers and helped raise the profile of issues such as overuse of fertilisers in China.
More recently a range of research projects through the UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund, the Newton Fund and others nurtured important collaborations. The UK also initiated the first trilateral cooperation on agriculture in Africa with China, with a UK company jointly managing Chinese technical experts working in Malawi and Uganda (2013-7).
Bolder engagement with China needed
In recent years much of this pioneering cooperation has experienced budget cuts, or has stalled as geopolitical relations have become more fraught. Some collaborations do continue, such as the John Innes Centre collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences through the joint Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science, but they are limited in scale and notwithstanding tensions in the wider relationship, there is scope for much bolder, more joined-up and confident engagement.
There are models to learn from. The University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, one of Europe’s leading agricultural universities, has a wide-ranging engagement with Chinese food and agriculture research institutions and has publicly elaborated why it cooperates with China and how it does so in a mature way that balances risk and opportunity.
Germany continues to support engagement with China through joint funding of a Sino-German Agricultural Centre in Beijing, with Chinese and expatriate staff. The Centre helps build relationships and understandings of Chinese policy and institutions, and supports strategic engagement by the German government.
The endorsement provided by the IR Refresh creates space for UK institutions to work on the global challenge of sustainable food and agricultural systems with China. So, what are the key areas to work on? A review of priorities, comparative advantages and areas of mutual interest will be necessary but in the meantime, three key areas are identifiable:
- Greening agricultural commodity supply chains
China signed the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use at COP26, signalling a commitment to reducing emissions linked to deforestation and land use change. The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) has helped to develop a strategy for greening supply chains for soft commodities associated with deforestation, such as palm oil, soy, and beef. However, implementation of due diligence and traceability mechanisms requires continued engagement and support.
The UK government should continue to explore how to engage China through mechanisms such as the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue, convened by the UK and Indonesia at COP26, to link producer and consumer countries on themes such as smallholder engagement, transparency and traceability.
- UK-China research and knowledge-sharing on food system transitions and low-carbon agriculture
China played a key role in brokering agreement of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in December 2022. The GBF commits countries to repurpose $500 billion of harmful subsidies and halve food waste by 2030. China has committed to reform agricultural support policies (and has taken significant steps in this direction), reduce agrochemical use and shift to greener forms of agriculture, including through circular agriculture innovations, as part of its path to net zero by 2060.
UK organisations have a good track record of collaborating on low-emission farming in China. UK funders could support dialogue, knowledge sharing, joint research and pilot projects to deepen the relationship with China to the benefit of each country, as well as others.
Other priority areas for collaboration include healthy and sustainable diets, food loss and waste, and the impacts of AI and automation on farm work, farming communities and inclusive development.
China is a vibrant source of innovation in sustainable food and agriculture, but much Chinese practice is little known outside of China – due in part to the pandemic as well as difficulties sustaining research collaborations. Carefully managed cooperation can address this gap.
- Working with China in third countries, particularly on climate resilient and biodiversity friendly, regenerative agriculture.
Evidence suggests countries in the global South value partnerships with both the UK and China on food and agriculture. There would, in time, be benefits from developing new triangular cooperations with China on climate resilient, regenerative agriculture, building on lessons from past UK supported trilateral programmes, as well as other initiatives.
China has much to share in terms of experiences and practices, the UK has complementary expertise and capacity, and experience shows that programmes can be more effective when carried out in broad-based partnership. China has expanded its relations particularly in Africa through the UN FAO South South Cooperation gateway mechanism and other initiatives. Constructive engagement with China in third countries can help enhance the impact of these ventures in line with national priorities.
Next steps
To support a new agenda of engaging with China on food and agriculture several steps could be taken:
- Prioritise International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) collaboration with China with a specific theme of food and agriculture research and development for people, nature and climate.
- Elaborate a funded action plan for the MOU between DEFRA and China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) agreed in 2022 to work on green agricultural development.
- Support the Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network – a well recognised platform within agricultural policy networks in China – with a refreshed mandate to coordinate knowledge-sharing, dialogue and pilot projects on low-carbon agriculture and sustainable food systems. International NGOs such as the World Resources Institute, WWF, and the Food and Land Use Coalition have networks and contacts on the ground in China, which could support exchanges on food and agriculture.
- Establish funds for networking and relationship building, such as the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) China partnership fund, which could be extended to research collaboration in the food and agriculture space.
- As FCDO tracks China’s engagements in third countries in the global south, it should look at opportunities to partner on food and agriculture technical cooperation guided by the priorities of the third country.
Unquestionably, support for cooperation in food and agriculture needs to be prudent – paying attention to security concerns, ethical practice, reviewing sources of funding, and uses of data. Where collaborations involve digital agriculture and internet-based applications there will be risks and trade-offs to consider.
Nevertheless, with careful screening of partnerships based on clear principles and assessment of risks, a significant space for engagement remains, which given the urgency of delivering better climate, biodiversity and food security outcomes, it is imperative to respond to.
