Xi Jinping's US visit brings back a big agriculture package, helping to better feed China
The “List of Outcomes of President Xi Jinping's State Visit to the United States” released by the Chinese side, which runs to more than 10,000 characters, shows that China and the United States reached 49 important consensus points in areas including politics, the economy and trade, and agriculture.
As the saying goes, “food is the first necessity of the people”, and the world food issue touches the hearts of countless people. As major agricultural countries, China and the United States have attracted much attention for the cooperation and development of agriculture between them, and agriculture is also one of the earliest areas in which the two countries carried out cooperation. What benefits will the outcomes of this visit bring to the people of both countries and the world?
Two countries renew cooperation document: promoting comprehensive development of agricultural cooperation between the two countries
On September 24, during Xi Jinping's visit to the United States, the China-US Agricultural Innovation Strategic Dialogue was held in Washington, and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and the US Department of Agriculture renewed the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China and the Department of Agriculture of the United States of America on Cooperation in Agriculture and Related Fields, continuing and expanding the projects and activities set out in the memorandum signed by both sides on September 22, 2009.
This memorandum is the framework for the two sides to discuss and coordinate matters related to agriculture and to promote cooperative activities between the two sides, as needed, in agricultural science and technology, agricultural economics and statistics, agricultural publicity and extension, trade in agricultural products, investment, and capacity building. According to the memorandum, the two sides will continue to have the Joint Committee on Agricultural Cooperation coordinate agricultural cooperation matters, focusing on carrying out mutually beneficial cooperation projects in areas such as food security, food safety and animal and plant health, agricultural product markets, enterprise investment and trade cooperation, personnel exchange, capacity building and extension, so as to promote the comprehensive, sustained and balanced development of agricultural cooperation between the two countries. The two sides may achieve cooperation through forms such as exchanging materials and information, exchanging scientists, experts and trainees, organizing symposia and special seminars, and jointly publishing research results and reports. It can be foreseen that agricultural cooperation between the two countries will further deepen in the future.
Cooperation between technological development and operating models: better feeding the Chinese people
Cowboys, ranchers, flocks of sheep, California sunshine and large agricultural machinery... In the minds of many people, these keywords are inseparable from any thought of American agriculture. In the American blockbuster Interstellar, the agricultural machinery vehicles invented by the male protagonist work automatically in vast farm fields like a formation. Although such a scene is somewhat exaggerated, it more or less reflects the current state of American agricultural development——both the production methods and the productivity level of American agriculture are among the most developed in the world.
The cultivated land area of the United States accounts for about 20% of its total land area, with nearly 0.6 hectares per capita, and the degree of mechanized farming and large-scale operation in agriculture is very high. China's cultivated land area ranks third in the world, after the United States and India, but because China has a large population, its per capita cultivated land area ranks below 126th, less than half the world average per capita cultivated land area, and at present most places still use an intensive smallholder farming model, especially in some less developed areas. How can the Chinese people be fed with limited resources? American agricultural development technology, the makeup of its economic mechanisms, and so on all have reference value for China. To date, China-US cooperation in agricultural science and technology has produced fruitful results, and China's vast market has become the driving force for American agricultural science and technology innovation.
Tangible benefits for ordinary people: “American beef will soon be on Chinese people's dining tables”
According to 2010 statistics, agricultural product exports already accounted for one fifth of US goods exports to China. “Made in America” agricultural products are appearing more and more on Chinese dining tables. In the future, as bilateral cooperation between the two countries strengthens, Maine lobster, Florida oranges, California wine and Vermont maple syrup... these American “local specialties” will be even closer to the dining tables of ordinary Chinese people.
During this year's National People's Congress and National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference sessions, Bi Meijia, chief economist and spokesman of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that over the years our agricultural cooperation with the United States, whether in density or quality, has been continuously improving. In terms of imports of agricultural products, the United States is our largest source; after China joined the WTO, it has handled matters strictly in accordance with the rules, both encouraging our enterprises to export our high-quality agricultural products and welcoming high-quality foreign agricultural products into China. “We hope the standard for importing American beef should be the same as that for Canada and Australia, with traceability back to the farm of birth. As long as this can be achieved, I believe American beef will soon be on Chinese people's dining tables. We hope both sides will work together toward this.”
It is not only American agricultural products that will enter the lives of ordinary Chinese people; against the broader backdrop of agricultural cooperation between the two countries, the pace at which Chinese agricultural products go global will also continue to accelerate.
Experts: strong complementarity, broad prospects for cooperation
During the visit to the United States, Chinese Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said that the United States is the world's largest exporter of agricultural products, while China is the world's largest producer, consumer and importer of agricultural products. Agriculture is an important point where the interests of China and the United States converge, the most stable area of cooperation, and is highly complementary.
Yao Jingyuan, a specially invited researcher at the Counsellors' Office of the State Council, pointed out that the United States is a major country in agricultural science and technology, and in agricultural science and technology there is a considerable gap between China and the United States. Through cooperation between China and the United States, food security can be guaranteed, and the two sides can also leverage their respective advantages in adjusting varieties and structure. This cooperation is a case of China and the United States leveraging and complementing each other's agricultural strengths, and it is a great thing for both Chinese and American agriculture.
Yao Jingyuan said that the prospects for future cooperation between the two countries are very broad, and China's agriculture must next shift from extensive growth that focuses on scale and speed to intensive growth that pursues quality and efficiency. In agriculture, innovation must be emphasized and the role of agricultural science and technology must be brought into play.
China can further exchange with the United States on its advanced agricultural science and technology, such as biotechnology, and this is a good thing for both China and the United States. In the past, everyone paid more attention to China-US cooperation in industry; in the future, the areas of cooperation in agriculture will be very broad. In the new historical stage, agricultural cooperation will become a very important area of cooperation between China and the United States.
Agricultural cooperation between China and the United States has a long history. Over the past more than ten years, China and the United States have exchanged hundreds of study groups, and the cooperative relationships between scientific research institutions and enterprises of the two countries have become increasingly solid. The United States introduced improved wheat and soybean varieties from China, while China imported American dairy cows and breeding pigs... China-US trade in agricultural products has accelerated, benefiting enterprises and farmers in both countries; two-way China-US agricultural investment has become increasingly active, achieving mutually beneficial and win-win industrial development. Cooperation between the two countries will promote the common development of agriculture on both sides and ultimately benefit the people of China and the United States.