Agricultural Policy and Food Safety in China
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introduce
Food security and the performance of the agricultural sector
Agricultural Development Strategy, Policy and Food Security
Prospects of grain economy in China
Problems and challenges
Concluding remarks
refer to
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introduce
It has long been recognized that China strives to produce enough food to feed its growing population. It only uses one fifth of the world's arable land to feed more than one fifth of the world's population. In modern history, China either exported grain or imported relatively little. In the1950s, China was a net exporter of grain, even grain. Although China became a net food importer in the1960s, the share of net imports in total domestic consumption was negligible. At the beginning of the reform (1978-84), the net import share reached about 3%, and then decreased to about 1% in the following period (1985-90). Since then, China has become a net grain exporter, except in 1995, when China's grain import reached a record level of nearly 20 million tons. The net export volume between 1992 and 1994 exceeds 5 million tons every year.
Although China's grain imports may increase slightly in the next few decades, during the reform period, China has become a strong net grain exporter in terms of value by exporting high value-added foods, including livestock products and other processed foods. The net export of food increased from 1980 (China customs statistics) to $2.3 billion in 1985, and reached a peak of $6.3 billion in 1993.
However, China's future food security is an increasingly worrying issue. First of all, although China's grain output has increased in the past few decades, the annual grain supply and price fluctuate greatly. Since1late 1980s, market stability and rising food prices have been one of the main goals of government policies. The government of China believes that maintaining a high level of food self-sufficiency, avoiding supply shocks and stabilizing consumer prices are related to national security and stability:
Only when people in China stop worrying about food security and stable food supply can they concentrate on supporting the current reform, thus ensuring sustained, rapid and healthy economic development (the State Council, 1996).
To this end, the government has recently taken measures to stabilize the domestic grain supply and market, including administrative and economic intervention in the grain distribution and sales system, national and local grain reserve plans, price regulations, international trade, factor markets and rural infrastructure development.
Second, food security and access to food are mainly poverty issues. Although the country's economic growth is strong, it is not balanced among regions. The income of farmers in the central and eastern regions of China continues to grow faster than that in the western and southwestern regions. Income inequality between regions, between urban and rural areas and within regions continues to expand (Ministry of Agriculture, 1997). In the early1980s, China made great progress in solving the poverty problem, which was mainly attributed to the government's rural reform plan. However, this progress has slowed down in the past decade.
Finally, if the policy direction is not correct, China's food supply may become the main food security problem in the coming decades. Worldwide, in recent decades, the growth rate of grain production has exceeded the growth rate of population, which means the increase of grain.