What are the six severe challenges facing food supply security?
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration of Grain and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the "Food Collection, Storage and Supply Security Guarantee Project Construction Plan (2015-2020)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). This is the first national-level special plan for the construction of grain circulation infrastructure.
Chinese agriculture has achieved long-term increases in production, and grain output has achieved an “eleventh consecutive increase”, but behind this there are still real challenges. On June 15, according to the official website of the State Administration of Grain, a relevant person in charge of the State Administration of Grain said that the long-term weak and backward state of grain circulation infrastructure has not yet been fundamentally changed.
Food supply security faces six severe challenges
The Plan mentions that in order to alleviate the severe shortage and backwardness of grain circulation facilities, from the late 1980s to the beginning of this century, China successively carried out three large-scale grain storage facility construction projects: mechanized key grain depots, the World Bank loan grain circulation project, and the construction of central reserve grain depots using government bonds.
However, a modern food collection, storage and supply security guarantee system is far from being completed. The Plan believes that with the increase in China's grain output and changes in the supply and demand situation, national food supply security still faces six severe challenges, namely: seriously insufficient capacity of grain collection and storage facilities, blocked grain logistics channels, weak emergency food supply capacity, relatively large hidden dangers in grain quality and safety, lagging grain situation monitoring and early warning, and serious post-production grain loss and waste.
In 2014, national grain output reached 607 million tons. Relative to the 398 million tons of commercial grain, there is a huge gap in grain storage capacity, and the problem is especially serious in the Northeast among the main producing areas. The original construction scale determined in the "Grain and Oil Storage Facility Construction Plan (2009-2020)" can no longer meet new needs. The problem of outdated and seriously aging grassroots grain collection and storage facilities remains very prominent, with major hidden dangers for safe production. These problems overlap and intertwine, challenging the security of grain collection, storage and supply.
China frequently suffers from natural disasters, and the task of emergency supply guarantee is arduous. The number of emergency food supply outlets is insufficient and their layout is unreasonable. Emergency processing and supply outlet facilities are outdated and backward, their functions are imperfect, and distribution efficiency is low. Emergency supply capacity for disaster response in rural and remote areas is especially weak.
As grain production continues to concentrate in main producing areas, the production-demand gap in main sales areas and the western region further expands, and the pattern of “transporting grain from the north to the south” becomes more prominent. In 2014, 165 million tons of grain were transported across provinces nationwide, and the proportion of bulk interprovincial transport of raw grain was about 25%, with bagged grain transport as the main method. In particular, railway bulk grain cars have not yet achieved nationwide operation due to the empty return problem, and the capacity of channels for Northeast grain entering the passes and for flows into the Southwest and Northwest is insufficient.
At the same time, grain stored by farming households in China accounts for about half of the country's total annual grain output, but due to poor storage conditions and crude facilities, the proportion of grain storage loss by farming households is about 8%. In addition, due to spillage and omission during grain storage, loading, unloading and transportation, and excessive and extensive processing, more than 35 million tons of grain are lost every year, and the waste in the catering consumption link is even more shocking.
The government will establish a planning assessment and evaluation mechanism
Under the new national food security strategy, in order to safeguard national food security and fundamentally solve the prominent problems existing in the field of grain circulation, the state decided to vigorously implement the Food Collection, Storage and Supply Security Guarantee Project (hereinafter referred to as the “Food Security Project”).
The main contents of the “Food Security Project” include “building grain and oil storage facilities, opening up grain logistics channels, improving the emergency supply system, safeguarding grain and oil quality and safety, strengthening grain situation monitoring and early warning, and promoting grain conservation and loss reduction”.
The aforementioned person in charge said that starting in the second half of 2012, the State Administration of Grain, on the issue of building the “Food Security Project”, organized relevant units to complete a series of major research reports, and on this basis, together with relevant departments and units such as the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, earnestly carried out the drafting and preparation of the construction plan for the “Food Security Project”.
The Plan determines that the key points of the “Food Security Project” construction are building grain and oil storage facilities, opening up grain logistics channels, improving the emergency supply system, safeguarding grain and oil quality and safety, strengthening grain situation monitoring and early warning, and promoting grain conservation and loss reduction. The purpose is to thoroughly improve infrastructure conditions such as grain storage and emergency response, comprehensively enhance the comprehensive guarantee capacity, macroeconomic regulation capacity and risk resistance capacity of food collection, storage and supply security, and ensure national food security.
The implementation of the “Food Security Project” is a “bottom-line” project for grain circulation work, and is an important basis for the construction of China's grain circulation infrastructure in the period ahead. The planning period is from 2015 to 2020.
In order to complete the overall goal by 2020, the construction under the Plan is divided into three stages. First, the emergency construction period (2015), focusing on solving urgent problems such as insufficient storage facilities, with the core being warehouse capacity construction in main producing areas and the maintenance and renovation of “dangerous warehouses and old depots”; second, the overall advancement period (2016-2017), comprehensively advancing the construction of infrastructure in the field of grain circulation; third, the full completion period (2018-2020), fully completing the construction tasks of the “Food Security Project”.
Among these, by the end of 2015, the task of centrally building 100 billion jin of new warehouse capacity is to be completed, and the number of households under the special project for scientific grain storage by farming households is to reach 10 million; by 2017, the maintenance and renovation of “dangerous warehouses and old depots” nationwide is to be completed; by 2020, outdoor grain storage such as “mat-and-bamboo bins” is to be basically eliminated, and other corresponding indicators are to be completed.
It is worth noting that the government will establish an assessment and evaluation mechanism. The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Grain will, together with relevant departments, supervise and inspect the implementation of the plan, carry out mid-term evaluation, and continuously adjust and optimize the plan implementation scheme and safeguard measures, so as to promote the smooth implementation of the plan's construction goals and tasks.