A video of corn farming in China stroked fears of food security in the country as the grain reserve cooperative moved to ban all devices capable of taking photos in granaries.

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China has been hit by record floods amid the coronavirus pandemic, also in a startling move Chinese buyers made record purchase of US corn amid heightened US-China tensions. 

The US Agriculture Department had said last week that China bought 1.937 million tonnes of corn from private US sellers which topped the previous biggest deal to China of 1.762 million tonnes a few weeks earlier.

Last week’s sale of corn to China accounted to $325 million. China’s American farm purchases amounted to $6 billion through May, the US report said even as the two countries squabble over the coronavirus epidemic and closed down each other’s consulates over espionage charges.

China’s “Twitter platform” Weibo circulated clips of corn which went viral on the net in China. The corn appeared to be mixed with dirt, even though the country’s authorities haven’t publicly said anything about a corn shortage in the country.

However, a ban on clicking photographs of granaries has led to large scale speculation that there could be a corn shortage in the country and the country’s authorities may be hiding the actual output and quality of corn as the country grapples with multiple hurdles this year.