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China adopting a new food security strategy

A new national food security strategy has been put forward up at the annually held China Central Economic Work Conference, which was concluded on 13th December. The new strategy is defined as “mainly self-dependent, based upon domestic supply, capacity to be secured, appropriate portion of import and to be backed up by science and technology”, aiming at reliance on domestic supply and centralized domestic resources to secure supplies of key foodstuffs such that cereals can be basically self-sufficient while rations of foodstuffs are absolutely secured.

Li Guoxiang from the Rural Development Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said, “the previous Mid / Long Term National Food Security Plan 2008 – 2020 sets up a red line where food self-sufficiency rate shall stay above 95%; according to the new strategy, the future self-sufficient food will be mainly cereals, namely maize, wheat and rice while soy and oil may not have to be self-sufficient.” He said that “agricultural products beyond cereals and rations of foodstuffs can be imported as much as possible, it is unnecessary to impose a self-sufficiency rate; this can also help to alleviate the tight land resource problem.”

The previous food security plan also requested specific figures to be reached by 2020, i.e. 1.8 billion Mu of cultivated land, planted areas of cereals, peanuts and rapeseeds, as well as the target of 540 billion kg of grain by 2020.

However the new strategy has cancelled the requested figures regarding planted areas of agricultural products and the target of output which was already reached at a much earlier date, except for the provision of cultivated land.