China's food security faces three prominent problems, State Council official explains

China News Service, Beijing, November 15 (Reporter Ma Haiyan) Li Wei, director of the Development Research Center of China's State Council, said in Beijing on November 15 that China's grain and food security field faces three prominent problems: resource and environmental costs, the impact of the international market, and hidden quality and safety risks.

At the Third China Grain and Food Security Strategy Summit, co-hosted by the Rural Economy Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council and the China Economic Yearbook Press, Li Wei said that China's per capita grain availability has now reached 450 kg, slightly above the world average, and that a massive grain procurement, storage, processing and distribution system has been established, markedly improving the availability of grain for urban and rural residents, but prominent problems also exist.

First, the resource and environmental cost of increasing grain output is too great. Li Wei said that the current increase in China's grain output still basically follows the old path of relying on factor inputs, with excessive development of water resources and excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, bringing increasingly prominent environmental costs and economic costs.

Second, China's domestic grain market is increasingly affected by the international market. The trend of domestic grain price changes seriously deviates from the international market, and the problem of inverted domestic and international grain prices is prominent. How to improve the agricultural products price formation mechanism, improve the grain procurement and storage system, and coordinate the two markets and two types of resources at home and abroad is a major issue in the adjustment of China's agricultural policy.

Third, hidden food quality and safety risks remain numerous. Li Wei said that food quality problems are highly concealed, information is asymmetric among producers, operators, consumers and regulators, and it is relatively difficult for the government to implement effective supervision, while the quality of imported food also cannot be reassuring.

Li Wei said that China must hold to the bottom line of basic self-sufficiency in cereals and absolute security of staple grains, maintain sufficient food security and production capacity, raise agricultural productivity, land output rate and resource utilization rate, and follow a path of agricultural modernization featuring efficient output, safe products, resource conservation and environmental friendliness. In addition, it is also necessary to adhere to moderate imports and establish a diversified and stable international trade system for agricultural products.

Li Wei stressed that the grain and food security China must safeguard is not only security in quantity, but even more security in quality. It is necessary to start from the source of the industrial chain, and on the basis of cultivating new types of economic entities and developing large-scale operations, promote the standardization, normalization and branding of agricultural production. On the one hand, it is necessary to purify the production area environment and cut off the chain by which pollutants enter farmland; on the other hand, it is necessary to promote the improvement of agricultural product quality through brand effects. (End)