Economic development has improved people’s daily diets in China, but food waste has increased significantly. China faces severe natural resource constraints, and reducing food waste is important for ensuring national food security. Based on 1634 survey samples from 28 provinces in China, this study assessed food waste in rural China and empirically analyzed the main factors affecting rural household food waste. The results showed that, on average, 1.67% of food is wasted per household each day in rural China. Food waste is greater in economically developed areas, such as East China. Empirical analysis showed that cooking utensils, preparing the right amount of food, religious beliefs, number of family members, average weight of family members, percentage of purchased grain in the total food consumption in 1 year, and total grain output are significantly related to rural household food waste.

Reducing post-harvest loss (PHL) and waste have become important methods for alleviating food security challenges. Based on survey data from 3490 rural households in 28 provinces in China, we first estimated on-farm PHL and waste and assessed the effects of loss and waste on resources in China. We then proposed potential methods to reduce loss and waste. The results showed that the PHL levels experienced by smallholders varied for different varieties, e.g. 4.36% of maize lost in the postharvest chain, while rice and wheat losses were 5.21% and 5.67%, respectively. Meanwhile, 1.73% of the total food is wasted during consumption every day. These losses and waste caused 38.55 million tons of grain to be lost or wasted in total, which is equivalent to 7.03 million hectares of land and 373.37 billion m³ water being meaninglessly input into grain production. This also means that these losses and waste add 9.68 million tons of carbon emissions. The empirical analysis reveals that mechanical harvesting is associated with a high harvest loss, and modern storage facilities are associated with a low storage loss. To reduce these losses, modern handling practices should be improved and promoted.

The United Nations included reducing harvest losses as a Sustainable Development Goal in 2015, sparking heightened research and policymaker interest in reducing losses to ensure food security. High-standard farmland construction plays a crucial role in ensuring food security. Few studies have combined high-standard farmland construction with grain harvest losses. Drawing on the data from the 2022 Chinese Post-Harvest Loss Survey (CPHLS 2022), the study utilizes OLS (ordinary least square) and quantile regression models to explore the impact of high-standard farmland construction on grain harvest losses. Empirical results show that high-standard farmland construction can significantly reduce grain harvest losses. The research conclusions are still valid after passing a series of robustness tests. The heterogeneity analysis shows that high-standard farmland construction significantly impacts on grain harvest losses for farmers in major grain-producing areas, plain areas, and eastern regions. Mechanism analysis reveals that high-standard farmland construction mainly reduces grain harvest losses by expanding operational scale and enhancing mechanization application. Based on research findings, the Chinese government should formulate a targeted high-standard farmland construction policy, optimize the agricultural machinery operating environment, and promote appropriate operational scale to ensure national food security.

Reducing food losses has become an important means of conserving resources and protecting food security. Based on nationwide survey data from 1526 households in 17 provinces in China, we evaluated Chinese rice harvest losses and used a fractional logit model to analyze the impact of farm size on these losses. The results show that, on average, 3.45% of total rice was lost during the harvest stage, representing a serious waste of resources. In addition, farm size was significantly negatively correlated with rice harvest losses, indicating an inverse relationship between farm size and rice harvest losses. As farms expand in size, farmers are more likely to adopt agricultural machinery services, which have been proven to reduce harvest losses. Our findings show that the government should encourage farm size expansion and promote better agricultural machinery services to reduce harvest losses.