Solving the problem of pigs' rations to safeguard national food security

With the growth of the total population, the rising share of urban residents, higher household income levels, and the expansion of industrial and energy uses of agricultural products, China's grain consumption has shown a clear year-on-year upward trend in recent years. Even with ten consecutive years of grain output growth, the grain self-sufficiency rate has been falling all the way, dropping below 95% in 2008, falling below 90% in 2011, and dropping to 88.2% in 2013. As a result, the national grain supply and demand situation has shifted from "basic balance between supply and demand, with a surplus in good years" at the end of the last century to the current "basic balance in total volume, with structural shortages." Grain imports have consequently increased year by year, reaching 80.25 million tons for all of 2013, 3.4 times that of 10 years earlier.

The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2013 put food security first and clearly proposed a national food security strategy of "taking self-reliance as the main approach, basing ourselves on domestic production, ensuring production capacity, importing moderately, and relying on scientific and technological support," relying on ourselves to secure rations, concentrating domestic resources on key priorities, and achieving the new national food security goal of "basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security in rations." The Central Rural Work Conference further reaffirmed the new concept of food security, clearly stating that "the rice bowl of the Chinese people must at all times be held firmly in our own hands, and our rice bowl must mainly contain Chinese grain."

From the perspective of the structure of grain consumption varieties in China, rice and wheat, the most important ration varieties for urban and rural residents, have maintained annual output of more than 300 million tons year-round, about 1.5 times the target of 135 kg per capita annual ration consumption by 2020 set in the "Outline of Food and Nutrition Development in China (2004-2020)." In other words, under current conditions, "absolute security of rations" such as rice and wheat is entirely possible. At the same time, as another major channel of grain consumption, feed grain consumption has grown rapidly in recent years, accounting for about 1/3 of total grain consumption and 2/3 of the increase, becoming the key to safeguarding the new goal of national food security.

Take 2013 as an example. That year, national total pork output was 54.93 million tons, an increase of 38.5% compared with 2000, accounting for about 64% of total meat output. Based on the current pig feed-to-meat ratio of 3.5:1, and the standard that corn, rice, and wheat account for 60%, 8.6%, and 7.4% of pig feed respectively, national pork production consumed 146.11 million tons of grain. Based on each breeding sow consuming 300 kg of grain per year, 49 million breeding sows consumed 14.7 million tons of grain over the year. The above two items together consumed more than 160 million tons of grain. In other words, in 2013 pigs nationwide "ate" 30% of that year's total output of the three major grains, 540 million tons. More importantly, China's pig farming industry is still growing at an average annual rate of more than 2%.

Therefore, in the new national food security strategy system, to ensure "basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security in rations," it is necessary not only to attach importance to the issue of "the rations of more than 1.3 billion people," but also to attach importance to and focus on solving the issue of "the rations of nearly 600 million pigs." Strategically, the concept of big food should be used to consider the security issues of both "people's rations" and "pigs' rations" in a coordinated way; tactically, feed grain should be separated from rations and counted separately, the pace of adjusting the agricultural planting structure should be increased, the traditional "grain-economic" dual planting structure should be pushed to transform into a "grain-economic-feed" tripartite structure, and feed-oriented grain varieties and grain-saving animal husbandry should be vigorously developed, fundamentally changing the current awkward situation of "people and pigs competing for grain" caused by "among the six domestic animals, the pig is first."

To this end, the following suggestions are proposed:

First, base ourselves on domestic production, ensure production capacity, continue to adhere unswervingly to the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land, strengthen support policies for grain production, strengthen reform of the grain price formation mechanism and the circulation system, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of farmers to farm and grow grain and of local governments to value agriculture and promote grain production, and continuously improve comprehensive grain production capacity. On the basis of ensuring absolute security of "people's rations," scientifically manage industrial grain use, further refine the structure of grain varieties and uses, steadily expand the production and supply of feed grain such as corn, and promote "separating grain for people and pigs."

Second, actively develop modern biotechnology and feed compounding technology, and continuously improve the conversion rate of feed grain for pigs. Vigorously develop "non-grain" feeds such as high-protein forage, further strengthen the supplementary role in pig farming of crop straw as well as agricultural product processing by-products such as oilseed meal, wheat bran, and distillers' grains, and take multiple measures to ease the pressure of pigs' demand for "pigs' rations."

Third, accelerate the adjustment of the layout of corn planting and pig production. In areas with little sunlight and high accumulated temperature, such as the Yangtze River Basin, central-southern, and southwestern regions, vigorously develop green and coarse feed and other substitute resources for feed grain; in major corn-producing areas with abundant sunlight and low accumulated temperature, such as the Northeast and North China, accelerate the development of the pig farming industry, focus on improving the coupling between feed grain planting and pig production layout, and reduce pig production costs.

Fourth, accurately grasp the scale and pace of grain imports, make full use of both international and domestic markets and both types of resources, make good and full use of tariff quota management and "amber box" policies, separate rations from feed grain when importing grain, further open up imports of feed grain such as corn and soybean meal to a greater extent, and prevent increases in international grain prices and panic caused by expanded grain imports. At the same time, it is necessary to broaden channels for feed grain imports, adjust and supplement domestic feed grain supply through timely and moderate imports of feed grain, effectively ease pressure on resources and the environment, and better safeguard staple grain security.

In short, attaching great importance to and focusing on solving the issue of "pigs' rations" is a major matter related to the new national food security goal of "basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security in rations," and it must be grasped firmly, done well, and made effective.