Ensure food security and make good use of the two markets

On the morning of the 24th, the "Golden Autumn report meeting on China's Rural Development, the Foundation of a Great Power," organized by the Voice of Rural China of the Central people's Radio, was held at China Agricultural University. Xu Xiaoqing, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council and former minister of the Ministry of Rural Economic Research, said that the total population and demand of our country are increasing, and these changes will lead us to think about the issue of food security. There are three ways to ensure food security: the first is production, the second is reserve and circulation, and the third is to make good use of two kinds of resources and two markets.

The problems facing our national food security

Xu Xiaoqing said: first of all, the problem facing China's food security is the marked increase in consumer demand: first, there is an increase in millions of people every year, which is a rigid demand; second, with economic growth, the people's income level is on the rise. The structure of food consumption has changed. For example, in the more than 20 years from 1990 to 2011, the number of aquatic products raised in captivity has increased more than fivefold, and pork production has doubled, including food vegetable oil from 2 kg per capita to 20 kg now. Third, in the process of urbanization, the labor force of the rural population in the primary industry is declining massively. According to current statistics, 269 million of the agricultural labor force of farmers has changed from producers to consumers.

Secondly, cultivated land in our country is scarce. China is a country with unbalanced agricultural resources, lack of land and water, our arable land accounts for less than 13% of the total land area, and our cultivated land of 9.6 million square kilometers accounts for less than 13%. For example, the United States accounts for 28% to 29%, major energy countries such as France and Europe also account for 30%, including our neighbor India, which accounts for 40% of arable land. Therefore, our cultivated land is extremely valuable. With the growth of economy, the occupation of cultivated land is also very serious. At present, China's per capita water resources are 30% of the world average, so the current situation should be said to be very grim.

In addition, we need to use a lot of chemical fertilizers. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2012 show that the average use of chemical fertilizers per mu is 32 kg, which is much higher than the world average. This means that we use 18 million tons of chemical fertilizer a year on 1.8 billion mu of arable land, accounting for 40 per cent of the world's total fertilizer consumption. On the one hand, it gives us output, on the other hand, it has an impact on our environment. Chemical fertilizers, pesticides and inevitable films all have an impact on our environment. Security comes from the environment, from the quality of water, soil, these issues are a challenge to our food security.

In addition, the current level of infrastructure in China is not enough, water conservancy facilities, soil management, soil use of all aspects of infrastructure, but also include our agricultural technology, such as the transformation of achievements, technology research and development need to be strengthened.

Measures to ensure Food Security in China

Xu Xiaoqing said that in 2014, the central economic work put forward a national food security strategy of "giving priority to us, having a foothold at home, ensuring production capacity, moderate import and scientific and technological support." Among them, "to ensure that grain is basically self-sufficient and rations are absolutely safe" means that we basically rely on ourselves to ensure the absolute safety of wheat. However, relying entirely on the existing cultivated land, that is, the annual sown area is 2.3 billion, can not meet the needs of all our citizens for agricultural products, so we have to rely on the international market. Including the going-out strategy. Therefore, the proposal put forward by the Central Committee is to ensure "basic self-sufficiency of grain and absolute safety of rations."

Secondly, we must stick to cultivated land, because cultivated land is a scarce resource in our country. For example, the current problem of excessive occupation of cultivated land is very serious, which need to be further protected by legal and policy work.

In addition, it is necessary to mobilize two enthusiasm, one is the enthusiasm of grain farmers, and the other is the enthusiasm of cadres in major grain producing areas to grasp grain, both of which are indispensable.

Thirdly, it is necessary to do a good job in regulating grain reserves. For example, in the work of grain circulation and reserve, various wholesale markets have also made a lot of investment.

Fifth, we should make good use of two markets and two kinds of resources. For example, corn is a high-yield crop, so making good use of international resources and international market is an important strategic measure for the country to ensure food security.

Finally, Xu Xiaoqing mentioned that we should save food. We should tell the people to eat scientifically and healthily, and to save food and food in the consumption link. Because what people eat is either grain or transformed food. According to figures obtained at a previous food impact and safety seminar with France, "We eat too much." Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and hyperlipidemia are now very common. So our researchers and the media need to make more efforts to tell the people how to eat healthily and how much is enough. Therefore, in addition to the production and circulation environment, it is very important to promote grain conservation.