Economic Daily · China Economic Net reporter Liu Hui
Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, locust disaster and other factors, this year's global food market is facing severe tests. Under such an environment, can my country's food security be guaranteed? A reporter from the Economic Daily learned that: my country’s agricultural harvest has been harvested year after year, and this year’s summer grain harvest has been reaped. With sufficient grain reserves, it is fully capable of ensuring the supply of grain and playing a fundamental role in the stable operation of the economy and society.
Summer grain harvest increases confidence
Hou Jiasheng is a major grain grower in Hesheng Village, Longwang Township, Funan County, Anhui. The 300 mu of high-quality wheat he planted this year has been harvested, with an average yield of 900 jin per mu.
According to the person in charge of the Rural Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, the sown area of summer grains has been steadily reduced this year. However, due to the good matching of light, temperature and water in the main producing areas during the growth period of wheat, the main summer grain crop, the moisture content of the wheat fields is suitable, which is generally conducive to wheat growth and yield improvement. At the same time, this year, various localities intensified the prevention and control of diseases and insect pests, and strengthened the professional services of "one spray and three prevention" in the later stage of wheat, so that diseases and insect pests were effectively controlled. This year, the national summer grain output per mu is 363.8 kg, an increase of 5.6 kg over 2019, an increase of 1.6%.
The increase in summer grain yield has become the main factor in the increase in summer grain production, supporting the summer grain output to hit a record high. Statistics show that this year’s summer grain output was 285.6 billion jin, an increase of 2.42 billion jin, an increase of 0.9%, and a record high. Among them, the output of wheat was 263.4 billion catties, an increase of 1.51 billion catties, or 0.6%. "Another bumper harvest of summer grains has increased my country's confidence in ensuring food security." said Cheng Guoqiang, a member of the National Food Security Strategy Expert Advisory Committee and a distinguished professor of the School of Economics and Management of Tongji University.
The key to a bumper grain harvest is to mobilize the enthusiasm of farmers and main producing areas. In the critical period of spring plowing, in order to stabilize grain production, the state has introduced a series of measures to encourage the development of grain production, which mobilized the enthusiasm of the main producing areas and farmers to grow grain. In recent years, the state has continued to increase its support for rice production and raised the minimum purchase prices for early and mid-late indica rice. The main early rice producing areas have strengthened the implementation of various incentive and supplementary measures to encourage support for early rice production. The sown area of early rice has been significantly expanded this year.
Although the harvest of summer grains laid the foundation for stabilizing the first half of the year's food production, the locust disasters and floods in the south in some areas caused challenges in the second half. This year, locust plagues and grasshopper moths have occurred in some areas such as Yunnan and Xinjiang. All localities have resolutely curbed the outbreaks and ensured a good harvest. The floods that swept the south had a greater impact on major grain-producing regions such as Jiangxi and Anhui. However, as the floods gradually receded, farmers in the affected areas began to replant late rice, which could restore food production to a certain extent.
What is gratifying is that Heilongjiang and other major northern producing areas have abundant rains, moderate temperatures, and lush crops. In the endless green rice field of the Sanjiang Qixing Farm in Heilongjiang, a large grain grower Jiang Hongfeng is busy organizing workers to do a good job in field management. "I planted 2000 acres of rice this year, and now it has entered the blooming and filling period." Jiang Hongfeng introduced.
Judging from the current grain production situation, the southern region of my country is stepping up the cultivation of autumn grain, and the northern region is doing a good job in field management of autumn grain, so that a good year-round grain harvest is expected.
Strengthen regulation to ensure supply and stable prices
Food is safe in the world, and food prices are stable. Faced with the impact of the epidemic, China has given full play to the macro-control functions of “rich grains are expensive, and apologies are cheap”. On the one hand, it has initiated the purchase of wheat and early indica rice at the lowest purchase price to prevent “low grain prices hurting farmers”; , Through auctioning policy grains and putting in reserve and rotating grains, the grains are continuously released to the market to prevent "rice expensive and hurt the people."
In Xuzhou, Jiangsu's main wheat-producing region, the purchase of wheat at the lowest purchase price is nearing completion. Jing Feng, secretary of the party committee and general manager of China National Grain Reserve Xuzhou directly affiliated library, told reporters that as of August 5, the local area had purchased 965,000 tons of wheat at the lowest purchase price.
Grain purchases are related to the vital interests of grain farmers, and are of great significance for protecting farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain, maintaining the stability of the grain market, and ensuring national food security. During the purchase of summer grains this year, the main wheat-producing regions such as Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu and Henan have successively launched the lowest purchase price of wheat, and Jiangxi has also launched the lowest purchase price of early indica rice. As of July 31, China Grain has acquired 5.65 million tons of wheat at the minimum purchase price in 2020, and 43,000 tons of early indica rice at the minimum purchase price in 2020.
In order to improve the ability of food emergency supply security, my country has initially established a food emergency security system in line with national conditions, and has established a ready-made grain reserve that can meet 10 to 15 days in large and medium-sized cities with concentrated populations and volatile areas. Grain emergency processing enterprises are the backbone of emergency response and stable supply of the city. At present, 5388 grain emergency processing enterprises across the country have fully resumed work and production, and the difficulties encountered by grain and oil enterprises in various regions such as employment, logistics, and customs clearance have also been effectively resolved.
"Doing a good job in ensuring supply and price stability has become the main task of current grain regulation." The relevant person in charge of the State Bureau of Grain and Material Reserves said that it is necessary to further improve the supply and price stability system, continue to improve the construction of the market system, and prevent speculation and speculation; strengthen the grain market Monitor and early warning, find the clues of market fluctuations, guide expectations through the release of information, and ensure the basic stability of the market; further improve the reserve emergency system.
International cooperation to tackle risks and challenges
At present, although China has achieved basic self-sufficiency in cereals, has absolutely safe rations, and has the ability to cope with the global food crisis, with the deep integration of the domestic food market and the international market, China must strengthen food security risk management and control, strengthen international cooperation, and jointly cope with the possibility Challenges facing global food security.
A report jointly issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Program and other institutions recently showed that the new crown pneumonia epidemic may cause an increase of 130 million people worldwide this year, and 690 million people worldwide will be hungry. This has once again raised concerns about global food security.
However, according to Cheng Min, a senior economist at the National Grain and Oil Information Center, the current situation of grain supply and demand in the international market is not tight. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated in July that global grain production, consumption, and ending stocks for 2020/21 will be 2.73 billion tons, 2.69 billion tons, and 847 million tons, respectively, an increase of 63.05 million tons, 47.27 million tons and 26.56 million tons over the previous year.
Cheng Guoqiang believes that the current global food supply and demand is facing three potential challenges: First, the spread of the epidemic around the world increases the international market’s expectations of instability in food trade; second, the severe locust plagues in some countries in South Asia and Africa may lead to reduced food production; third, international Financial speculative capital may use the epidemic and the expected reduction in food production to hype, trigger panic in the global market, push up prices in the international food market, and lead to a global food crisis.
"Although our country is capable of responding to the global food security challenges that may come, it must also attach great importance to various risks and plan early to respond." Cheng Guoqiang said. It is necessary to manage the instability expectations and risks of imported grains, and beware of market panic and looting of grain. It is necessary to make up for shortcomings in the supply of important agricultural products, strengthen and improve the storage system of important agricultural products, and establish an efficient, safe and controllable emergency supply guarantee network for agricultural products.