Steady progress in reforming and innovating the central grain reserve system
“According to the Hong Fan chapter's eight governance principles, food is the first priority of governance.” Food security bears on economic development, social stability and national security. The rice bowl of the Chinese people must always be held firmly in our own hands, and that bowl should mainly contain Chinese grain. Under the new circumstances, to implement the new national food security strategy of “taking self-reliance as the mainstay, basing ourselves on domestic production, ensuring production capacity, making appropriate imports and relying on scientific and technological support,” we need to vigorously advance the reform and innovation of the central grain reserve system.
The central grain reserve system helps ensure national food security
Establishing the central grain reserve system is our grand strategy for ensuring food security. To safeguard food security, we need a red line for cultivated land, a red line for water resources, and also a red line for grain reserves.
Basing ourselves on domestic production is the strategic anchor of food security. Since the beginning of the new century, China's grain output has achieved an “eleven consecutive years of increase,” and the food security situation has been fundamentally improved. But this does not mean that China's food security problem has been completely solved. China is in a period of accelerated industrialization and urbanization, and food security faces many challenges from population, resources, environment and other aspects. We must clearly see that feeding more than a billion Chinese people can only be based on domestic production, relying on ourselves.
The reserve system is the strategic cornerstone of the food security safeguard system. China has a long history of grain reserves, which have played an important role in stabilizing the market, preparing against famine and supporting farmers. After the founding of New China, China successively established strategic reserve grains and oils such as “Jiazi grain” and “506 grain,” and in the 1990s it also established the national special grain reserve system. On the basis of summarizing the experience and lessons of reserve operation, in order to deepen the reform of the grain circulation system and improve the central grain reserve management system, in 2000 the Party Central Committee and the State Council decided to establish Sinograin, exercising vertical management over central grain reserves. In implementing state policy-based grain and oil procurement, auction sales, inter-provincial depot transfers and emergency disaster relief deployment, the vertical system has become the main force and reliable carrier of the state's grain macro-control.
The strategic role and functions of the central grain reserve system have become increasingly prominent. In the new era, the safeguard function of central grain reserves has been upgraded from the initial “having” (quantity) to the comprehensive goals of satisfying “fullness” (sufficiency), “goodness” (quality) and “stability” (market). This requires us to take serving basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple food as the main line of capacity building, give full play to the main force role in serving grain regulation and the supporting role in domestic grain supply; and, with the goals of satisfying producers' ability to “sell out” and consumers' ability to “buy,” “afford” and “eat well,” optimize the reserve structure and layout and improve reserve quality.
Continuously improving the central grain reserve system
The central grain reserve system is an important means of the state's grain macro-control. Continuously improving the central grain reserve system is a systematic project that requires efforts on multiple fronts.
Uphold and improve the vertical management system. Practice has shown that the vertical management system is effective, the market-oriented and enterprise-based operation mechanism for reserve grain rotation is successful, and Sinograin's role as the main force in the national grain macro-control system is prominent. In the new era, we must better leverage the advantages of the vertical management system, adhere to the positioning of a functional enterprise, fully focus on the main business of food security, and strive to realize the transformation from traditional enterprise management to a modern enterprise system, from decentralized operations to group control, and from diversified development to highlighting the main business.
Establish a risk resolution mechanism for entrusted storage. Improving the entrusted storage system for reserve grain is an important part of improving the central grain reserve system. At present, a large amount of policy-based grain and oil is entrusted to local enterprises for collection and storage, which involves problems such as scattered depots, difficult supervision and high risks. To solve these problems, the state needs to increase investment in warehouse construction, and at the same time adhere to the policy of separate loans and separate repayment in policy-based procurement, implementing the principle that whoever stores bears the loan and bears the responsibility, and fully leveraging the supervisory duties of local governments and the Agricultural Development Bank.
Improve the market-oriented and enterprise-based operation mechanism. As the grain market system continues to improve and the central government's regulatory capacity and means are further strengthened, improving the central grain reserve system urgently requires improving the market-oriented and enterprise-based operation mechanism. We should adhere to the organic combination of policy-based and public-interest functions with market mechanisms, and the organic combination of national macro-control goals with enterprise micro-level operations, stay closer to the market, better proactively serve regulation through market methods, do a good job in rotation purchase and sales, sell high and buy low, shave peaks and fill valleys, and give play to the role of backbone enterprises in ensuring supply and stabilizing prices. A rotation risk adjustment mechanism should be established as soon as possible to ensure the security of central grain reserves.