"China has every confidence to say, in a responsible manner, that it is food secured.” Minister Han Changfu said in an exclusive interview with the People's Daily of China in March, 2013.
The interview was a side-event of the 2013 sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing. Food security, agriculture and farmer-related issues are hot topics at the two sessions.
During the interview, Minister Han answered the following questions:
Will this year witness the tenth consecutive year of output growth?
Question 1: China’s imports of rice, wheat and corn increased by a big margin in the past two years. Does this mean inadequate food supply to meet domestic demand? Will China's grain output see a tenth consecutive year of growth?
Minister Han: Regarding food security, I’d like to make two points: First, China, a country with over one billion people, must resort to domestic means to ensure its food security. That is to say, China must mainly rely on domestic supply to realize food self-sufficiency. Second, China has every confidence to say, in a responsible manner, that it is food secured..
If so, why did the grain imports increase markedly? To explain the issue, we need to make a specific analysis of the import increase. Product diversification is a significant factor. The 10 million tons of wheat, corn and rice in 2012 were mainly imported as diversified options to domestic consumers. Price is another factor. Taking rice as an example, CIF prices of imported rice from Vietnam are even 10 percent lower than those in the domestic market.
Hereon, some figures may shed some light on the issue. Although China’s import volume of rice, wheat and corn in 2012 is 5 million tons higher than that of 2011, its gain reserve in 2012 increased by tens of million tons. While 400 kg per capita of grain is the international food security baseline, China’s grain availability per capita stood at 435 kg in 2012. In terms of grain self-sufficiency, China achieved 98% for rice, wheat and corn in 2012; its grain production hit the new record of above 550 million tons in the past two years. All these figures fully reflects the general balance between the supply and demand of grain, guaranteed national food security and effective supply of major agricultural products in China.
Even though China made great achievements in agriculture, it should never slacken agricultural production. In light with requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, MOA will make grain output growth the top priority of its work, and make every effort to ensure output increase in summer grain and early-rice and stable output in autumn grain, hence to achieve the tenth consecutive grain output growth.
Who will farm the land?
Question 2: The young-generation represents 60% above of the total migrant workers. The majority of this group is unwilling to return to farming. Currently, the elderly and women are the main rural labor forces. If this situation continues, then who will farm the land in the future?
Minister Han: Who will farm the land in the future is indeed an emerging issue in China. Based on China’s reality, the essence is not “nobody will farm the land”, but “what type of farmers will farm the land”; it’s not “how can increasingly fewer farmers grow the farmland”, but “how can farmers harvest greater benefits from farmland”.
At present, China still has surplus rural labor forces. Yet the rural community is experiencing dramatic demographical transition unfavorable for farming activities. The mass exodus of young farmers has left the countryside largely inhabited by the elderly, women and children. Many rural households have switched to non-agricultural profession or farming sidelines. Therefore, aging farming and part-time farming will be more pronounced in China.
How to tackle the lack of qualified farmers lies in the improvement of comparative benefits of farming. To this end, China is going to foster "new types" of professional growers, family farms and rural cooperatives. The government willl create a more favorable environment to guide farmers to evolve from old-fashioned field-tillers to a 'new type' of professional farmers. Moreover, innovative institutions and policies will be developed to encourage graduates with higher education and professional personnel to engage in farming.
How to ensure the tenth consecutive yearly growth in farmers’ income?
Question 3: Despite of income growth for nine years in a row, the annual income gap between urban and rural residents remains wide. What measures will be taken to ensure sustained and fast growth in farmers’ income or to ensure the tenth consecutive yearly growth in income?
Minister Han: Income is the top concern of farmers. Whether China will complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects should be judged by whether the farmers live a well-off life. I’m very happy to share some indicators: in the past three straight years, rural residents’ income remained a double-digital growth rate, higher than that of urban residents; the ratio of per capita disposable income of urban residents to that of rural residents was on a decline.
It is pressing to establish a long-term mechanism to increase farmers' income. The Chinese Government will reinforce support to agriculture, farmers and the rural areas while adjusting the income distribution mechanisms. This move includes policies and measures to stabilize grain production, improve pricing mechanism of agri-products, encourage agri-business start-ups, and increase the share of property income and transfer payment in farmers’ total income.
For instance, improving farmer’s income is like driving a car of four-wheel drive system. Income from agricultural production and wage income are the two major wheels. The other two wheels are property income and transfer payment, taking a comparatively small proportion of the total income now. Only driven by four wheels, can the car go fast and far, so does farmers’ income. With the four “wheels”, even in hard times, farmers’ income growth will be assured.
These questions were raised by:
Source in Chinese: People’s Daily
(All information published in this website is authentic in Chinese. The English version is provided for reference only.)
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