New food security goals can only be achieved with the rule of law safeguarding the security of the grain basket
Dialogue motivation
October 16, 2015 is the 35th World Food Day, and the week it falls in is the 25th National Grain Love and Grain Saving Publicity Week.
Food security has always been an overall major strategic issue concerning our country's national economic development, social harmony and stability, and national security and self-reliance. Our country is a large country with a population of more than 1.3 billion, and the constraints on grain production from reduced arable land, shortages of water resources, and climate change are growing day by day, while with the development of urbanization and industrialization, as well as population growth and improvement in people's living standards, grain demand shows rigid growth, and grain supply remains in a state of tight balance for a long time. Therefore, our country's food security issue is not only a need based on our country's national conditions, but also a focus of attention for countries around the world.
What is the current state of food security in China? In the face of various food security challenges worldwide and domestically, what support can the rule of law provide? With these questions, a reporter from Legal Daily held a dialogue with Hong Tao, the main author of the 2014—2015 China Food Security (Assessment) Development Report and director of the Institute of Business Economics at Beijing Technology and Business University.
Interlocutors
Hong Tao, director of the Institute of Business Economics at Beijing Technology and Business University
Zhao Li, reporter from Legal Daily
Gu Peng, intern at Legal Daily
Our country's food security situation is very good
Reporter: From the proposal of the concept of food security to today, when food security is increasingly valued, the connotation of food security has become richer and richer. In the new period, a new outlook on food security has emerged, including “enough supply, deliverable, affordable, and good to eat” and “one country's food security does not affect other countries' food security”. The outlook on food security is constantly developing. What is our country's current food security situation?
Hong Tao: From 2004 to 2015, our country's grain production achieved “twelve consecutive increases”, creating a miracle in the history of grain in China and even the world. In 2014, grain output reached 607.1 million tons, an increase of 0.9%, and it is expected that 2015 will see a “twelfth consecutive increase”, with grain output reaching 620 million tons, an increase of 1.76%. In absolute terms, our country's grain has achieved substantial growth.
What is noteworthy is that our country's grain production is constrained by resources and the environment such as arable land and fresh water, and continuous increases are becoming more and more difficult, with the space for further growth in grain output being limited. In 2014, the growth rate of our country's grain output declined for 3 consecutive years.
Reporter: In the 2014—2015 China Food Security (Assessment) Development Report, it is also mentioned that in 2014 China's total grain imports reached their highest level. Regarding this issue, the analysis of the “report” is that the reasons mainly lie in factors such as the prices of grain varieties in the international market being generally lower than domestic ones. Even so, this situation still makes people worry about the current food security situation.
Hong Tao: What can be certain is that our country's food security situation is very good, but it also needs to be made clear that our country's food security faces four main problems: First, the grain price “ceiling” problem. That is to say, domestic grain prices are now higher than international market prices, approaching the “ceiling”; second, grain production costs have risen substantially, and the grain “floor” is constantly rising; third, our country's grain subsidy “yellow line” problem. When China joined the WTO, it promised that “amber box subsidies”, such as price support and direct subsidies linked to the current output of agricultural products, which have a relatively large distorting effect on trade, must not exceed 8.5% of output value. According to statistics, China's fiscal subsidies for “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” have already approached this “yellow line”; the fourth problem is that the “red light” problem in the grain ecological environment has lit up. That is to say, when we produce grain, some arable land has deteriorated and its quality has declined, leading to a decline in the quality of grain production. Excessive use of arable land to develop grain production has brought about damage to grain ecology, such as excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, resource overload, and environmental overdraft.
Reporter: Looking back at the changes in our country's food security situation, it is not hard to find that whenever our country's grain supply is relatively large, a slack mood is very likely to appear. In the mid-1980s and the late 1990s, difficulty in selling grain generally appeared across the country, and farmers had to reduce grain production, resulting in successive stagnation and declines in grain production and tight supply in the grain market. People call this situation the grain cycle. Every time the grain situation is good, factors of grain tightness are often also brewing.
Hong Tao: So we propose “stabilizing quantity, improving quality, and increasing efficiency”.
“Stabilizing quantity” means we should not pursue a “thirteenth consecutive increase”; “improving quality” means improving quality. The quality of some of our grain products has declined, affecting market demand, so the brand issue should attract our great attention; “increasing efficiency” mainly means enabling farmers to obtain good returns. If there is a bumper grain harvest, but farmers' incomes cannot increase year after year, then the development of grain will be unsustainable.