China's Empty Harvest: The Dark Side of "Paper Farming" A recent investigation by CCTV's Focus Report into alleged misreporting of rice crop sizes in Jianghua Yao, a county in Hunan province, has exposed a disturbing trend in China's agricultural sector.
Dubbed "paper farming," this practice involves inflating the size of mandatory crops to meet targets, with some fields existing only on paper.
This phenomenon is rooted in a complex web of bureaucratic incentives and a flawed system that rewards quantity over quality.