Six severe challenges to the security of food supply

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Grain Administration and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Construction Plan of the Grain Collection, Storage and supply Security Project (2015-2020) (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). This is the first national special plan for the construction of grain circulation infrastructure.

China's agriculture has increased production for a long time, and grain output has achieved "11 consecutive increases", but there are still practical challenges behind this. On June 15, according to the official website of the State Grain Administration, a person in charge of the State Grain Administration said that the long-term weakness and backwardness of the grain circulation infrastructure had not been fundamentally changed.

Six severe challenges to the security of food supply

According to the Plan, in order to alleviate the serious shortage and backwardness of grain circulation facilities, from the late 1980s to the beginning of this century, China has successively carried out three large-scale grain storage facilities, such as mechanized backbone grain depots, World Bank loan grain circulation projects, and the use of treasury bonds to build central grain reserves.

However, the security system of modern grain collection, storage and supply is far from being completed. The "Plan" believes that with the increase of China's grain output and the changes in the supply and demand situation, the country's grain supply security is still facing six severe challenges, that is, the capacity of grain collection and storage facilities is seriously insufficient, the grain logistics channel is not smooth, the grain emergency supply capacity is weak, the hidden danger of grain quality and security is large, the grain situation monitoring and early warning lags behind, and the post-natal grain loss and waste is serious.

In 2014, the national grain output reached 607 million tons, compared with 398 million tons of commercial grain, there is a huge gap in grain storage capacity, especially in the northeast of the main producing areas. The original construction scale determined in the Construction Plan of Grain and Oil Storage facilities (2009-2020) can no longer meet the new needs. The serious problem of aging of grass-roots grain collection and storage facilities is still very prominent, and there are great hidden dangers in production safety. These problems are superimposed and interwoven, challenging the security of grain collection, storage and supply.

Natural disasters occur frequently in our country, and the task of emergency supply is arduous. The number of grain emergency supply network is insufficient, the layout is unreasonable, the facilities of emergency processing and supply network are obsolete and backward, the function is not perfect, the distribution efficiency is low, and the emergency supply capacity for rural and remote areas is particularly weak.

As grain production continues to concentrate to the main producing areas, the gap between production and demand in the main selling areas and the western region has further expanded, and the pattern of "transporting grain from the north to the south" has become more prominent. In 2014, 165 million tons of grain were transported across provinces, and the proportion of bulk transportation of raw grain across provinces was about 25 percent, mainly in packaged grain. In particular, the railway bulk grain vehicles have not been operated in the whole country because of the empty problem, and the capacity of grain entry in Northeast China and the inflow channels in Southwest and Northwest is insufficient.

At the same time, Chinese farmers' grain storage accounts for about half of the country's total annual grain output, but due to poor storage conditions and poor facilities, the proportion of farmers' grain storage loss is about 8%. Coupled with the omission, excessive and extensive processing of grain storage, loading, unloading and transportation, the annual grain loss is more than 35 million tons, and the waste of catering consumption is even more shocking.

The government will establish a planning assessment and evaluation mechanism.

Under the new national food security strategy, in order to ensure national food security and fundamentally solve the outstanding problems in the field of grain circulation, the state has decided to vigorously implement the grain collection, storage and supply security project (hereinafter referred to as the "grain security project").

The main contents of the "Grain Security Project" include "building grain and oil storage facilities, opening grain logistics channels, improving emergency supply system, ensuring grain and oil quality and safety, strengthening grain situation monitoring and early warning, and promoting grain conservation and loss."

The above-mentioned responsible person said that since the second half of 2012, the State Grain Administration has organized relevant units to complete a series of major research reports on the construction of the "grain security project". In conjunction with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and other relevant departments and units to conscientiously carry out the drafting and compilation of the construction plan of the "grain security project".

The Plan determines that the key points of the construction of the "Grain Safety Project" are to build grain and oil storage facilities, open grain logistics channels, improve emergency supply system, ensure grain and oil quality and safety, strengthen grain situation monitoring and early warning, and promote grain saving and loss reduction. the aim is to thoroughly improve grain warehousing, emergency and other infrastructure conditions. We will comprehensively improve the comprehensive security capacity, macro-control capacity and anti-risk ability of grain collection, storage and supply, so as to ensure national food security.

The implementation of the "Grain Security Project" is a "bottom line" project for grain circulation and an important basis for China's grain circulation infrastructure construction in the coming period, with a planning period from 2015 to 2020.

In order to achieve the overall goal by 2020, the construction of the Plan is divided into three stages: the first is the emergency construction period (2015), which focuses on solving the urgent problems such as the shortage of storage facilities, and the core is the construction of warehouse capacity in the main producing areas and the maintenance and renovation of "dangerous warehouses". Second, the overall promotion period (2016-2017), comprehensively promote the infrastructure construction in the field of grain circulation. Third, during the comprehensive construction period (2018-2020), the construction task of the "grain security project" will be completed in an all-round way.

Among them, the task of centralizing new warehouses with a capacity of 100 billion jin will be completed by the end of 2015, and the number of special households for scientific grain storage by farmers will reach 10 million; by 2017, the maintenance and renovation of the country's "old dangerous warehouses" will be completed; by 2020, open-air grain storage such as "mat hoarding" and other corresponding targets will be basically eliminated.

What is noteworthy is that the government will establish an assessment and evaluation mechanism. The Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Grain Bureau will, together with relevant departments, supervise and inspect the implementation of the plan, carry out a mid-term evaluation, constantly adjust and optimize the planning and implementation plan and safeguard measures, and promote the smooth implementation of the goals and tasks of the planning project.