China's post-harvest grain losses exceed 70 billion jin, equivalent to the annual ration of 200 million people

China's annual post-harvest grain losses exceed 70 billion jin

Equivalent to the annual ration of 200 million people

On the occasion of the arrival of the 24th National Grain Love and Grain Saving Publicity Week, the State Administration of Grain stated today that China's post-harvest grain losses and waste are very large, and the potential for saving and cherishing grain is enormous.

According to calculations by relevant scientific research institutions and experts, due to crude household grain storage facilities, grain spilled and lost during loading, unloading and transportation, and excessive or extensive processing, the grain losses caused in China each year amount to at least more than 70 billion jin, equivalent to the annual ration of 200 million people. Among these, due to crude household grain storage containers, low levels of preservation technology, and the impact of rodent damage, insect damage and mold, the grain loss rate is about 8%, which calculates to about 40 billion jin of losses each year at the household grain storage stage.

October 16 this year is the 34th World Food Day, and the week in which it falls is the 24th National Grain Love and Grain Saving Publicity Week. This year's theme for World Food Day is “Family Farming——Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth”. The State Administration of Grain stated that in promoting grain saving and cherishing, the current difficulties in the work lie, on the one hand, in the large base proportion of farmers practicing scientific grain storage (according to Ministry of Agriculture data, there are currently 210 million grain-growing households nationwide), while fewer than 3% of farmers have implemented the special program for scientific household grain storage, making it quite difficult to fully achieve household grain storage loss reduction (40 billion jin); on the other hand, in the processing stage, according to relevant statistics from the State Administration of Grain in 2013, small enterprises with a daily production capacity of less than 50 tons of grain and oil processing enterprises account for about 20%, and backward production methods lead to large amounts of processing loss and waste.