Good News in the First Year of Implementing the New National Food Security Strategy
On December 4, the National Bureau of Statistics released national grain production data showing that China's total grain output in 2014 reached 1,214.2 billion jin, an increase of 10.3 billion jin over 2013, marking another bumper harvest.
For Li Zhanchuan of Lizhuang Village, Matou Town, Dongming County, Shandong Province, the bumper harvest was news he had already celebrated, but this harvest had not come quietly. When the corn was nearly ready for harvest, it rained continuously, and some of the corn contracted bacterial wilt. Fortunately, technical guidance arrived in time, and in the end it was a near miss. “Farming is not as easy as people imagine, as if once you plant the seeds you don't have to worry about anything. There is skill involved in this too.”
This grain farmer on the plains of southwestern Shandong is a microcosm of China's current grain production, where everything from national strategic grain policy down to the technical details of fertilizing at which leaf stage is reflected in his dozen or so mu of land.
Building the National Food Security Strategy Sends a Strong Signal to Value Agriculture and Grasp Grain Production
This year is the first year of fully implementing the national food security strategy under the new circumstances. The new national food security strategy of “taking self-reliance as the mainstay, basing ourselves on domestic production, ensuring production capacity, importing moderately, and relying on scientific and technological support” has become the main thread running through the year's grain production.
At the end of last year, just as China's grain production had increased for ten consecutive years and climbed to a new high, some dissenting voices about “too much grain” and “there is no need to grow grain ourselves” kept fermenting. In the post-“ten consecutive increases” era, has the national food security strategy changed? How should agricultural departments safeguard grain? How should local governments grasp grain production? How should farmers grow grain?
However, these confusions did not last long. During the Central Rural Work Conference at the end of 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: the Chinese people's rice bowl must be firmly held in our own hands at all times. Our rice bowl should mainly be filled with Chinese grain. Premier Li Keqiang pointed out that we must plan the national food security strategy under the new circumstances in an integrated way and build a more solid and reliable national food security safeguard system. This year's Central Document No. 1 proposed that we must promptly build the national food security strategy under the new circumstances. This not only sent a signal, but also strengthened confidence in winning another bumper harvest.
The national food security strategy under the new circumstances has set the tone and pointed out the direction for doing a good job in grain production at present and for some time to come. Among these, “basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple food” is the basic approach and strategic bottom line of China's food security; while the twenty characters “taking self-reliance as the mainstay, basing ourselves on domestic production, ensuring production capacity, importing moderately, and relying on scientific and technological support” are the fundamental orientation and implementation method for China's next step in grain production: on the basis of always adhering to taking self-reliance as the mainstay and basing ourselves on domestic production, we must grasp the strategic balance point, import agricultural products moderately, and make good use of both resources and both markets. In the mode of grain production, we must aim to ensure production capacity and strengthen scientific and technological support.
“Implementing the national food security strategy under the new circumstances means always persisting in doing a good job in grain production without wavering, further clarifying the order of priority for safeguarding national food security, rationally allocating resources, and concentrating efforts to first safeguard the most basic and most important things.” emphasized Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture.
This year's grain figures have delivered an outstanding “first-year good news” report for the new national food security strategy. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, this year's national grain sown area was 1.691 billion mu, up 0.7% over 2013, of which the grain crop sown area was 1.419 billion mu, up 0.9%. The national total grain output was 1,214.2 billion jin, up 0.9% over 2013, of which total grain crop output was 1,114.54 billion jin, up 0.8%. On the high starting point of ten consecutive years of grain increases, it achieved climbing from a high point and defending the position at a high level, and the achievement was extremely hard-won.
Strengthening Policy Guidance Stimulates Farmers' Enthusiasm for Growing Grain
With a clear direction, policy is stable. In the first year of implementing the national food security strategy under the new circumstances, a number of policies for valuing agriculture and grasping grain production, already proven effective through years of practice, continued to play an incentive role. Vertically, these policies covered pre-production, mid-production, and post-production; horizontally, they covered all aspects of different grain-producing areas and different crop varieties, driving this year's total grain output to a new high.
Since the beginning of this year, the central government has continued to issue a series of policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers. The “four subsidies” for agriculture continued to increase on the basis of more than 160 billion yuan last year, and the newly added agricultural subsidies were tilted toward new types of business entities such as large grain growers, family farms, and farmers' cooperatives; rewards to major grain-producing counties continued to be increased to mobilize production enthusiasm in main producing areas; the national minimum purchase price and temporary storage policies were implemented well to keep agricultural product prices at a reasonable level, promote farmers' income from growing grain, and make farmers love growing grain and grow good grain.
As the competent department for grain production, the Ministry of Agriculture put great thought and effort into fully implementing the national food security strategy under the new circumstances. In January this year, the Ministry of Agriculture specially issued the Notice on Earnestly Doing a Good Job in Grain Production and Safeguarding National Food Security. Zeng Yande, Director of the Department of Crop Production of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that the Ministry of Agriculture will earnestly enhance its sense of responsibility, never relax in doing a good job in grain production, and start from policy implementation, farmland protection and quality construction, scientific and technological services, new types of business entities, disaster prevention and mitigation, and responsibility implementation, intensify efforts, strengthen measures, and do everything possible to promote the stable development of grain production.
The central government's policies were strong, and localities also issued many supporting policies. Anhui Province pre-allocated 1.3 billion yuan in funds for subsidies for improved varieties of wheat, rapeseed, and others to cities and counties in March; Shaanxi Province publicly posted this year's direct grain subsidies and comprehensive agricultural input subsidies, and the first batch of 3 million yuan in agricultural machinery purchase subsidy funds could meet farmers' machinery purchase needs; Jiangxi Province fully distributed 4.109 billion yuan in direct grain subsidies and comprehensive agricultural input subsidies, and 888 million yuan in centrally pre-allocated improved variety subsidy funds, to households before the end of March.
Clear policy guidance, clear market signals, and stable expectations for increased income fully mobilized farmers' enthusiasm for production. “The national policies are good, and all kinds of subsidies truly benefit grain farmers. Growing grain feels secure!” The words of Sheng Lianying, a villager of Xinying Village, Nanzheng County, Shaanxi Province, expressed the heartfelt sentiments of grain growers.
Vigorously Grasping Scientific and Technological Services Helps Achieve New Breakthroughs in Defending Grain at a High Level
From winter to spring and from summer to autumn, the agricultural departments' painstaking care for every inch of grain fields and their insistence on fighting for every single grain ran through every link of the year's grain production.
During spring plowing, major diseases and pests such as wheat stripe rust, fusarium head blight, and rapeseed sclerotinia showed a severe recurrence trend, seriously threatening the safety of summer grain and oil production. The Ministry of Agriculture launched the spring action to prevent diseases and control pests and win a bumper summer grain and oil harvest, requiring implementation of the subsidy policy for wheat “one spray, three preventions” and implementation of subsidy projects for the prevention and control of major crop diseases and pests, to minimize losses from diseases and pests.
“For seedling fields with standing water, ditches should be cleared and soil moisture regulated as soon as possible, and the fields should be drained and exposed. After temperatures steadily rise, the film at both ends of the seedling beds should be uncovered in time for ventilation and hardening of seedlings; especially when temperatures are higher, the film should be uncovered even earlier.” On March 31, the Ministry of Agriculture urgently issued the Technical Guidance Opinions on South China Early Rice Responding to Rainstorm Weather, providing scientific and detailed guidance in response to the adverse effects on early rice production caused by the first round of large-scale heavy precipitation in southern China since February 28. This was already the 19th technical guidance opinion issued by the Ministry of Agriculture since the spring of this year.
In mid-July, during the main flood season, the China Meteorological Administration predicted that an El Nino event of moderate or greater intensity would occur that year, making the task of fighting disasters and winning a bumper harvest arduous. The Ministry of Agriculture launched the action to strengthen services, scientifically combat disasters, and win an autumn grain bumper harvest, requiring strengthened classified guidance, promotion of scientific disaster resistance, and taking promotion of growth, promotion of early maturity, prevention of drought and floods, prevention of high-temperature heat damage, prevention of low-temperature cold damage, and prevention of diseases and pests as the technical path, to fully implement disaster prevention and mitigation measures.
On August 2, in Wugong County, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, corn that had not been watered was only knee-high, with curled leaves, and was basically a total crop failure. Since mid-July, most areas north of the Yangtze River had continued high temperatures and little rain, and drought conditions continued to develop in some areas. The Ministry of Agriculture urgently dispatched 8 drought-relief working groups to Henan, Shaanxi, Anhui, and other provinces, going deep into the front lines of production in severely affected areas, conducting on-the-spot investigations to understand the drought situation, assessing the impact of drought on agricultural and animal husbandry production, and together with local agricultural departments, formulating technical guidance opinions on drought relief according to the occurrence of the disaster and the growth stages of different crops.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, this year's national average yield of grain crops was 359 kg/mu, an increase of 0.56 kg/mu over the previous year, or 0.2%. With relatively severe disasters in some areas this year, especially the “neck-choking drought” suffered in northern regions, this is a fully admirable answer sheet for per-unit yield. It reflects the important role of “human effort” in grain production and also tests the correctness of the current working method and path of “valuing agriculture and grasping grain production.”
Year after year, the land does not rest, farmers have no holidays, and the same is true for the countless agricultural workers striving on fertile fields. Before the smiles from last year's bumper harvest have faded, the next year's cultivation follows close behind. This is hard labor, and also infinite hope.