Thoughts for food

Food has always been considered as big as heaven by the Chinese people and it is particularly so for China today when the ever-improving living standards for its 1.3 billion people are pushing up demand for the consumption of grain.

The medium-and-long term food security program adopted on principle at a State Council meeting on Tuesday suggests that the central government has attached enough importance to this issue of food. Along with the program was a plan for the increase of annual grain output in major grain-producing Jilin province from the present 25 to 30 millions tons in five years.

The country's grain output was 500 million tons in 2007, and it was expected to remain the same this year. The grain production capacity will be kept at least at this level in the year 2010, and the annual output will be increased to 540 million tons in 2020, according to the program.

It is definitely necessary for a country as populous as China to have a long-term strategy for grain production to forestall possible famines to be caused by natural disasters or other unexpected calamities.

Yet, it is not that easy to reach the goal.

Greater efforts must be made in the first place to maintain the total area of arable land at no less than 120 million hectares, the bottom line set by the State Council to guarantee the country's food security. Now the area stands at 122 million hectares.

In addition, rural people must be given more incentives to keep their enthusiasm for growing crops. The government will increase subsidies to farmers, according to the program. And grain prices will be reasonably adjusted to increase the income of farmers.

Of course, input in agricultural technology is an imperative for increasing the per unit yield. The fabulous increase in per unit yield of rice by the hybrid rice technology in the past is strong evidence how technology can promote agricultural production.

The goal that the program has set for the country's agricultural production to meet at least 95 percent of its own demand for grain is not only a long-term strategy for its own food security, but also a signal that China's prosperity will not be at the cost of world food prices.

By implementing this program in the years to come, China will have more reasons to be proud of its achievement in agricultural production - for feeding 22 percent of the world's population with only 7 percent of world's arable land.

But the other side of the coin is that the country's food security deserves much more attention, and its government cannot afford to commit any slip of error in agriculture.

(China Daily 07/04/2008 page8)