National Food Security in the New Era Must Meet New Challenges

China has to use less than one-tenth of the world's arable land to feed more than 1/5 of the world's population. This special national condition determines that food security in China should be far more important than any other country in the world. From a domestic perspective, although China's agriculture is in the best period of development in history, and the total grain output has achieved nine consecutive increases, the demand for food has increased rigidly in the process of industrialization and urbanization, and food security is facing the challenge of increasing resource and environmental constraints. From an international point of view, the food crisis has caused social unrest in some countries and regions from time to time. Under the background of informatization, food, like oil and currency, has become a strategic weapon for a country to restrict other countries. The strategic position of the foundation of the national economy and increasing international competitiveness is even more unshakable.

National Food Security Strategy in the New Era Needs New Understanding

food security is the overriding national strategic bottom line. In any era, food is the main body of human food, and adequate food is the premise of social stability, people's health and economic development. Once a global power with a population of more than one billion is seriously short of food, it will not only be a disaster for China, but also a disaster for the world. In the world food crisis, powerful countries often use food to seek special political and economic interests. In the 1970 s, former US Secretary of State Kissinger declared: "whoever controls food controls all people" when looking at the long-term goals of US geopolitics ". Under the background of informatization and global economic integration, the generation mechanism, generation mode and generation effect of world food competitiveness are constantly innovating. China's food security is not only a fundamental issue related to the national economy, people's livelihood and social and political stability, but also the primary issue of national economic development strategy, national security strategy and international competition strategy, and the overriding national strategic bottom line.

Food security is the basis for the development of strategic emerging industries. At present, the fourth technological revolution led by new energy and biotechnology is gestating and developing. The United States and other developed countries are vigorously developing biotechnology and related industries, aiming to lead the world from the era of knowledge economy to the era of biological economy, and seek to control the world The right to speak in the agricultural product market. China has listed new energy industry and biological industry as strategic emerging industries, and the total output value of biological industry was close to 2 trillion yuan in 2011. As one of the basic industries of new energy industry and biological industry, grain industry is not only an important carrier of biotechnology, but also a raw material source of biological medicine, biological industry and biomass energy. Therefore, if China's food security is not effectively guaranteed, the country's strategic emerging industries will lose the foundation for development.

Grain production efficiency is the core issue to ensure food security. There are many problems that need to be solved to ensure national food security, and the core is to solve the problem of food production efficiency. With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, the rural young and middle-aged labor force continues to work in cities, the number of "hollow villages" is increasing, and the phenomenon of cultivated land abandonment is becoming more and more serious. "Who will farm the land" has become an unavoidable serious problem of national food security. Under the condition of market economy, the core of determining "who will farm the land" and the enthusiasm of grain production is the benefit of grain production, but in reality, the gap between income from grain production and non-grain income and non-agricultural income is getting bigger and bigger, and the benefit of grain production is getting lower and lower. If the efficiency of food production is low, food security, as the most important national security strategy, cannot be fundamentally guaranteed. Therefore, the problem of food production enthusiasm must rely on production efficiency to be effectively resolved.

National food security strategy faces new challenges in the new era

food supply is facing the dual pressure of population and social development rigid demand. According to forecasts by relevant departments, by 2050, China's population will grow to about 1.5 billion, exceeding the total population of developed countries at that time. The demand for grain is about 0.78 billion tons and the demand for meat is about 0.12 billion tons. With the acceleration of industrialization and the continuous expansion of the industrial use of grain, the demand for grain in pharmaceutical, chemical, bioenergy and other industries will increase significantly. China's urbanization rate will exceed 60% in 2020, which means that more than 0.1 billion million people will be transferred from rural areas to cities and towns, from producers of agricultural products to pure consumers, and the growth of food consumption is inevitable. With the improvement of people's living standards and the improvement of dietary structure, the growth of feed grain and processed food grain will also show a rigid growth, and the indirect consumption of grain will continue to accelerate.

The grain production capacity is facing the dual pressure of resource and environmental constraints. As a national condition that cannot be changed, China's per capita agricultural resources are far below the world average. With the accelerating pace of industrialization and urbanization, the competition between agriculture and industry, rural areas and cities for cultivated land, water resources, human resources and other resource elements is becoming increasingly fierce. At the same time, the agricultural development supported by the expansion of resource elements has brought a series of problems, such as resource destruction, environmental pollution, soil erosion, land desertification and so on. "White pollution" has become a major disaster in rural areas. Water pollution and land desertification are becoming more and more serious, which restricts the sustainable development of food production. The impact of climate change on food production has become increasingly prominent. According to estimates by the National Meteorological Administration, droughts and floods caused by national warming threaten the stability of China's food production, and extreme weather may cause 10%-20% of China's food losses; global warming As a result of increased droughts, floods, diseases and insect pests, the fluctuation range of China's food production may expand to 30%-50%.

The grain market is facing the dual pressure of domestic and international competition. In today's world, agricultural powers such as Europe and the United States occupy a dominant position in the field of agricultural biotechnology. In particular, the "four major grain merchants" of global agricultural multinational companies have strengthened the layout of the "whole industry chain" of global grain sources, logistics, trade, processing and sales. It has not only controlled 80% of the global grain trade, but also controlled 70% of the global oilseed trade, and is gradually increasing the intensity and speed of entering the Chinese grain market. The competitiveness of agricultural products in emerging economies such as Brazil and India has also increased significantly, and the competition for countries around the world to seize the right to speak in the food market has become more intense. At the same time, with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, the competition between the grain industry and other domestic agricultural industries and non-agricultural industries for cultivated land, water resources and market is becoming increasingly fierce. Affected by the low comparative benefit of grain, the market competitiveness of grain has been seriously restricted.

New Countermeasures for National Food Security Strategy in the New Period

the shift from local food security to global national security. Judging from the situation after the world food crisis, a world economic war without gunpowder has been launched between different economies, and food has become one of the important strategic trump cards. Food has gone beyond the scope of food in the game of economic globalization. It is no longer a pure trade product in the segmented market, but a bargaining chip in the international economic game and a weapon in the world economic war. From a strategic perspective, sustained food productivity is the ability to develop "nuclear weapons" in the world economic war. If you have the dominant position in the world food market, you will have the dominance of the world economic system. Therefore, food security not only seriously affects economic security such as currency, energy and industry, but also relates to national security at the military and political levels. National food security must be incorporated into China's overall development strategy at the height of global strategy.

Shift from passive to active food security. For a long time, China's food security has been in a state of passive protection and defense with the goal of solving the basic supply. As a traditional agricultural country and a major food producer in the world, China basically has no right to speak in the world agricultural product market, and large-country agriculture has become "ration agriculture". As a major food producer in the world, we must not only firmly grasp the initiative of the "grain bag", so that the country's food security is always in an active position, but also must improve its competitiveness in the world food market to strengthen domestic food security. Only by forming a strong grain production capacity, low-cost production advantages, high-tech and information-based support capabilities, and a sound market control mechanism, can we ensure that we are always in an active position in the ever-changing international grain market.

From simple food security to enhance the country's comprehensive competitiveness. Grain production is not a strategic industry that can drive the rapid growth of China's total economic output, but the comprehensive grain production capacity inherently affects and even determines China's global strategy. At present, China is in a critical period of economic transformation, and the largest market for expanding domestic demand is in rural areas. Only by improving the comprehensive agricultural production capacity and grain market competitiveness, and comprehensively increasing farmers' income, can we stimulate the vast rural market demand, promote the smooth transformation of China's export-oriented economy to an inward-oriented economy, and comprehensively improve the country's core competitiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to elevate agriculture to a strategic industry of the entire country, and incorporate the improvement of food competitiveness into the strategy of enhancing the country's global competitiveness, from agricultural infrastructure, agricultural technology progress, agricultural informatization, agricultural systems and mechanisms, and agricultural services., Agricultural laws and policies, agricultural ecological environmental protection, agricultural industry development, agricultural business entities and agricultural sustainable development mechanisms, etc., to build a series of policy systems that strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers, through material input, technological progress, institutional innovation and the improvement of the market system, we will comprehensively strengthen the basic position of agriculture, enhance the comprehensive grain production capacity and market competitiveness, and ensure national food security.

and shift from emphasizing increasing grain production to simultaneously promoting farmers 'income. As a basic public product, the government has adopted a variety of policies to benefit farmers, but the enthusiasm for grain production has not been well mobilized, which is related to the unity of grain production and farmers' income. Today's farmers are no longer rural labor in the traditional sense, but market entities that compete fairly in a market economy. At the same time, in addition to fair and reasonable income expectations, the same input also has fair and reasonable development expectations. If other input income far exceeds the income of grain production, farmers will lose their enthusiasm for grain production. Therefore, to ensure food security as a major national strategy, the premise is to ensure that farmers can get comparative benefits from food production. While implementing the effective financial subsidy policy, we should make more use of market means to activate the driving force of farmers engaged in grain production, give full play to the inducing role of price signals, promote the allocation of resource elements to rural areas, accelerate the process of agricultural modernization, and form a long-term mechanism to mobilize the enthusiasm of grain production.

Time: May 27, 2013 | Editor: Zhai Tianchang