Seed breeding innovation, irrigation, and stable corn production in China: Further discussion of changing situation of China's corn production relying on nature
It is of great importance for China's grain security and the efficient utilization of agricultural resources to study the adaptive agricultural strategy for corn production under the background of climate change. Based on the data of corn production in 166 cities from 12 main corn producing provinces from 2004 to 2014, this paper examined the classical question about whether China's grain production is still relying on nature. Results show that corn breeding innovation and improved irrigation have significant positive effects on reducing the dependence of corn production on nature. While drought has a significant negative impact on corn yields. In addition, joint test also shows that the situation of China's corn production relying on nature has been improved from 2004 to 2014. But irrigation expansion relies on the increase of the number of wells, which will result in the over-exploitation of groundwater and the increased ecological and environmental concerns. During the thirteenth Five-year Plan period, to balance the objectives of future food production and the environmental resources, this paper suggests to reduce food production task from the regions requiring heavy irrigation and to conduct more related scientific research for this problem.