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Investment Forum for Food Security in Asia and the Pacific, 7-9 July 2010
ADB Headquarters, Manila, Philippines
It's a great pleasure for me to join you all at Manila, the beautiful capital of
Philippines, to exchange views on experiences of securing national food security,
the needs for investment and cooperation in the future, strengthening policy
coordination, and promoting cooperation between governments, international
development agencies, and private sector, on food security related issues in the
Asia-Pacific region. First of all, I’d like to, on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture of
the People’s Republic of China, express our heartfelt gratitude to ADB, FAO,
IFAD and the Government of the Philippines for your thoughtful arrangements for
this forum.
As the world's major grain producer and consumer, China feeds 22% of the
world’s population with only 9% arable land of the world. Its food self-sufficiency
rate has been kept above 95% of the country’s grains requirements for a long
time. Since 2000, the Chinese government has been attaching great importance
to agriculture and food production, has been issuing series of policy in favor of
farmers, and strengthening macroeconomic regulation to promote steady
development of food production. As a result of these coordinated actions, the
country realizes effective insurance of national food security.
Thirdly, people's diet structure has improved. Chinese citizens’ per capita
share of agricultural products has improved significantly. In 2008, the per capita
share of grain was 399 kg, oil 22.3 kg, pork, beef, and mutton 40.3 kg, aquatic
food 37 kg, and milk 26.8 kg. As the diet structure becomes increasingly diverse
and the quality gets improvement, the capacity of ensuring balanced supply also
witnesses great enhancement, and the nutrition condition has been significantly
improved.
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In order to ensure food security through support for food production, China has
taken series of measures that are conducive for food development. These
included a range of policy and investment measures that boost productivity and
production such as research and development for improved technology, and
provision of support infrastructure, market facilities, equipment and extension
services.
The main lessons we’ve learned include the following aspects: Firstly, treat
farmland protection as a long-term basic national fundamental policy. 1.8
billion mu cultivated land is not only the bottom line for ensuring China's grain
self-sufficiency, but it is also the basic resource for food security. To this end,
China has established the basic farmland protection system and implemented the
most stringent farmland protection system, so as to ensure the quality of land
resources is sustained from the system perspective. At the same time, the quality
of cultivated land is improved as farmers and rural collectives are encouraged to
increase land enhancing inputs. Through these combined measures, soil fertility
is enhanced, and agricultural productivity has been improved.
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finished, and more than 1,600 mu standard grain field cultivated. Under the Large
Merchandise Grain Base Construction Project, by the end of 2008, Central
government has invested 4.3 billion yuan and constructed more than 70 large
merchandise grain bases in 12 provinces, such as Hebei, Inner Mogolia, Liaoning,
Heilongjiang, Jilin, .etc.
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Thirdly, global warming trend is irreversible. In the past century, the global
average surface air temperature (SAT) rised by 0.74 ℃, while the average SAT in
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IV. Road Ahead: Aims and Guarantees for the Food Security of China
With the increasingly complex food security situations at both domestic and
international front, the long-term priority of agriculture development in China will
be toward “improving the comprehensive capacity of agricultural production,
guaranteeing the effective supply of major agricultural products and ensuring the
national food security”. According to the Long-Term Planning Overview for
National Food security (2008-2020), the specific goals for food security of China
are as follows: (1) maintain a minimum 1.8 billion mu of farmland and at least 1.26
billion mu of grain farms nationwide by 2015; (2) maintain a minimum grain
self-sufficiency rate of 95%, and enable the comprehensive grain production
capacity of beyond 530 billion kg by 2015; (3) maintain reasonable amount of
grain reserve; and (4) ensure at least 40% of the grain logistics to adopt the “4 in-
bulk” process including grain loaded, unloaded, stored and transported in bulk
manner. To realize the above goals, China will further upgrade the irrigation
systems and improve medium/low-yielding fields; promote improved varieties and
high-yielding cultivation techniques; modify the farming systems to develop and
make full use of limited resources; promote advanced and applicable agricultural
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On the institutional and policy levels, the government will implement the following
measures. Firstly, implement the most rigorous farmland protection system.
The bottom line of 1.8 billion mu of farmland shall be firmly held and efforts will be
made to continuously improve the soil fertility; protection and compensation
mechanism shall be established to ensure that the basic farmlands will not be
reduced, their uses will not be changed and their quality will be improved.
Secondly, strengthen the construction of agriculture infrastructure. The
National Plan of Additional 50 Billion kg Grain Project will be accelerated. The
input on grain production will increase substantially, through enhanced
investments in the Seed Project and the Plan Protection Project. Current projects
such as the Comprehensive Agriculture Development Project and the Land
Consolidation Project will favor the major grain producing areas, with improved
construction standards. Thirdly, improve the system of subsidy and reward
for food production. The comprehensive agricultural direct subsidy and price
dynamic adjustment mechanism will be improved. The coverage of “subsidy for
improved varieties” will be increased and standards will be improved; the subsidy
for purchasing agricultural machinery will be further scaled up; more subsidies
and fiscal reward will be given to large grain-producing farmers and counties,
respectively. The unified professional service in purchasing, supplying,
distributing and spraying pesticides will be actively explored. Fourthly, improve
the adjustment mechanism of the food market. The minimum purchase price
for grain will be steadily increased; a subsidy system for target food price will be
explored and built to combines the price support policy with the income subsidy
policy. Further, the monitoring on grain production, consumption, import/export
and storage/transportation will be enhanced by establishing an early-warning and
monitoring system. The supervision on foreign investment in grain circulation and
processing will be strengthened. Fifthly, increase the input on agricultural
technology. The focus will be put on addressing the technical problems that
potentially reduce grain production, such as breeding and pest control. More
efforts will be made to enhance the innovation capability of agricultural research
bases and regional research centers. Institutional innovation and capacity
building in the promotion of agricultural technology will also be accelerated. And
the subsidy fund for high-yielding grain/oil will be scaled up to promote
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China's development is closely tied up with the global development. The food
security of China is also increasingly relevant to the food security of Asia-Pacific
region and even that of the world. China’s achievement in a sustaining its food
security situation may be attributed to the long-term support from international
financial institutions such as ADB, FAO and IFAD as well as our own efforts.
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By following the open strategy of mutual benefits and win-win outcomes, China is
ready to partner with governments in the Asia-Pacific region, international
development agencies and private sector, to achieve the goal of regional food
security development. China will cooperate actively, share experiences and
develop in scientific ways, facilitate the construction of the Country Partnership
Framework for Food Security in Asia-Pacific region, promote food production and
guarantee sustainable food security.
Thank you!