How can China achieve basic grain self-sufficiency? Li Keqiang: Insist on relying on domestic production
Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council visited the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on October 15 and delivered a speech. This is the first visit by a Chinese premier to the organization's headquarters since its founding 69 years ago. Li Keqiang said that as China's urbanization accelerates, it is expected that by 2020, 200 million people will have settled in cities and towns from rural areas or found nearby employment in the central and western regions, which requires China to innovate its agricultural production methods, implement innovation based on family-run agriculture, and promote innovation in various forms of agricultural operation. At the same time, it is necessary to accelerate the transfer of rural land management rights and encourage farmers' association and cooperation.
Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council visited the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on October 15 and delivered a speech. This is the first visit by a Chinese premier to the organization's headquarters since its founding 69 years ago.
Li Keqiang said that as China's urbanization accelerates, it is expected that by 2020, 200 million people will have settled in cities and towns from rural areas or found nearby employment in the central and western regions, which requires China to innovate its agricultural production methods, implement innovation based on family-run agriculture, and promote innovation in various forms of agricultural operation. At the same time, it is necessary to accelerate the transfer of rural land management rights and encourage farmers' association and cooperation.
He stated that the Chinese government attaches great importance to agriculture and has always adhered to relying on domestic production to achieve basic grain self-sufficiency.
Li Keqiang said that China uses 9% of the world's arable land and 6.5% of its fresh water to feed nearly 20% of the world's population, which fully demonstrates intensification. In the future, China will continue to conserve and efficiently use water resources, accelerate ecological protection and construction, promote the sustainable use of agricultural resources, and leave fertile farmland and clear waters and blue skies for future generations. Protecting China's ecology is also caring for the Earth and protecting the Earth.
In his speech, Li Keqiang shared China's poverty reduction experience with the world. He also promised that China will strengthen cooperation with developing countries and share agricultural technology, agricultural equipment, and agricultural development models with the world.
China is one of the world's largest grain producers and importers, and its grain output and agricultural policies have a significant impact on the world. Zheng Fengtian, vice dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, told a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald that although China has achieved the gratifying result of ten consecutive years of grain output growth, the crisis of food security has always hung over its head like a sword.
Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture, once wrote an article titled "Fully Implement the National Food Security Strategy Under the New Situation," which comprehensively explained China's food security strategy. In the article, Han Changfu raised five major issues in Chinese agriculture:
First, rigid growth in demand for agricultural products coexists with tightening hard resource constraints. Two factors affect demand growth: one is population growth, and the other is consumption upgrading. At the same time, constraints on arable land and water resources continue to intensify. Demand growth and resource reduction will keep the supply and demand of grain and other agricultural products in a state of tight balance for a long time.
Second, overall balance in the total supply and demand of agricultural products coexists with structural shortages.
Third, rising agricultural production costs coexist with declining comparative returns. In recent years, production factors such as the prices of agricultural inputs, land rents, and labor costs have all been rising, while from the perspective of planting income, comparative returns are relatively low and trending downward. This will affect farmers' enthusiasm for production.
Fourth, structural shortage of rural labor coexists with small-scale family operations. As a large amount of rural labor shifts to non-agricultural industries, the problems of part-time farming, hollowing out of rural areas, and aging of farmers are becoming increasingly serious.
Fifth, weak infrastructure coexists with frequent natural disasters.
It is precisely for the above reasons that the current Chinese government attaches great importance to the food security issue. In the No. 1 Central Document of 2014, the first issue raised was food security. The document proposed the basic strategy of “ensuring basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple foods” and put forward the plan of “more actively utilizing international agricultural product markets and agricultural resources to effectively regulate and supplement domestic grain supply.”
Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China's staple foods are rice and paddy, and when corn is added to these two, they are grains. “Absolute security of staple foods and basic self-sufficiency in grains” quantified into specific indicators means: the rice area should remain broadly stable at more than 450 million mu at present, the wheat area should remain broadly stable at more than 340 million mu, and China's corn planting area is 545 million mu. The planting areas of these three major crops should remain basically stable.
On the premise of maintaining staple foods and grains, China's food security strategy requires making good use of international resources. Li Guoxiang said that utilizing international resources and markets has two meanings. First, importing agricultural products, which is what we have traditionally done, and in recent years the volume of imports has gradually increased, especially for soybeans, cotton, and other oilseed and cash crops. Second, “importing” the resources for agricultural production, that is, encouraging large domestic agricultural enterprises to go global and use international land, water, and other resources to produce agricultural products to supplement domestic supply.
Li Keqiang said that as China's urbanization accelerates, it is expected that by 2020, 200 million people will have settled in cities and towns from rural areas or found nearby employment in the central and western regions, which requires China to innovate its agricultural production methods, implement innovation based on family-run agriculture, and promote innovation in various forms of agricultural operation. At the same time, it is necessary to accelerate the transfer of rural land management rights and encourage farmers' association and cooperation.
He stated that the Chinese government attaches great importance to agriculture and has always adhered to relying on domestic production to achieve basic grain self-sufficiency.
Li Keqiang said that China uses 9% of the world's arable land and 6.5% of its fresh water to feed nearly 20% of the world's population, which fully demonstrates intensification. In the future, China will continue to conserve and efficiently use water resources, accelerate ecological protection and construction, promote the sustainable use of agricultural resources, and leave fertile farmland and clear waters and blue skies for future generations. Protecting China's ecology is also caring for the Earth and protecting the Earth.
In his speech, Li Keqiang shared China's poverty reduction experience with the world. He also promised that China will strengthen cooperation with developing countries and share agricultural technology, agricultural equipment, and agricultural development models with the world.
China is one of the world's largest grain producers and importers, and its grain output and agricultural policies have a significant impact on the world. Zheng Fengtian, vice dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, told a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald that although China has achieved the gratifying result of ten consecutive years of grain output growth, the crisis of food security has always hung over its head like a sword.
Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture, once wrote an article titled "Fully Implement the National Food Security Strategy Under the New Situation," which comprehensively explained China's food security strategy. In the article, Han Changfu raised five major issues in Chinese agriculture:
First, rigid growth in demand for agricultural products coexists with tightening hard resource constraints. Two factors affect demand growth: one is population growth, and the other is consumption upgrading. At the same time, constraints on arable land and water resources continue to intensify. Demand growth and resource reduction will keep the supply and demand of grain and other agricultural products in a state of tight balance for a long time.
Second, overall balance in the total supply and demand of agricultural products coexists with structural shortages.
Third, rising agricultural production costs coexist with declining comparative returns. In recent years, production factors such as the prices of agricultural inputs, land rents, and labor costs have all been rising, while from the perspective of planting income, comparative returns are relatively low and trending downward. This will affect farmers' enthusiasm for production.
Fourth, structural shortage of rural labor coexists with small-scale family operations. As a large amount of rural labor shifts to non-agricultural industries, the problems of part-time farming, hollowing out of rural areas, and aging of farmers are becoming increasingly serious.
Fifth, weak infrastructure coexists with frequent natural disasters.
It is precisely for the above reasons that the current Chinese government attaches great importance to the food security issue. In the No. 1 Central Document of 2014, the first issue raised was food security. The document proposed the basic strategy of “ensuring basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple foods” and put forward the plan of “more actively utilizing international agricultural product markets and agricultural resources to effectively regulate and supplement domestic grain supply.”
Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China's staple foods are rice and paddy, and when corn is added to these two, they are grains. “Absolute security of staple foods and basic self-sufficiency in grains” quantified into specific indicators means: the rice area should remain broadly stable at more than 450 million mu at present, the wheat area should remain broadly stable at more than 340 million mu, and China's corn planting area is 545 million mu. The planting areas of these three major crops should remain basically stable.
On the premise of maintaining staple foods and grains, China's food security strategy requires making good use of international resources. Li Guoxiang said that utilizing international resources and markets has two meanings. First, importing agricultural products, which is what we have traditionally done, and in recent years the volume of imports has gradually increased, especially for soybeans, cotton, and other oilseed and cash crops. Second, “importing” the resources for agricultural production, that is, encouraging large domestic agricultural enterprises to go global and use international land, water, and other resources to produce agricultural products to supplement domestic supply.