As China’s grain security faces ‘unprecedented’ difficulties, Beijing will ramp up subsidies
- With an eye on increasing its self-sufficiency in grain production, China is raising alarms about risks to its wheat output
- Climate-related disruptions took a heavy toll on crops last year, and report says China is at risk of falling below its so-called red line on grain production in the coming decade
China is sounding the alarm about “unprecedented” challenges facing the nation’s food security this year, while prioritising domestic grain production and soybean self-sufficiency in its annual blueprint for rural policies.
The concerns were outlined this week in the year’s first joint policy statement issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council, the nation’s cabinet.
Atop the to-do list is the need to ensure that there is abundant year-round arable land for grain to maximise output, particularly in the face of climate-related output disruptions.
Additionally, the document emphasised the need to implement a nationwide programme to boost the production capacity of soybeans and oil plants; to identify detailed steps and measures that can be taken in various regions across the country; and to grant more subsidies and incentives to encourage farmers to grow more soybeans and corn.
China vows domestic soybean output will increase 40 per cent by 2025
The document, devoted to rural issues, has been issued for 19 straight years and is considered an important indicator of policy priorities.
“[We must] firmly adhere to the two bottom lines of national food security and [preventing the] large-scale re-emergence of poverty,” it states this year.
The production of summer grains, which account for about 40 per cent of staple crops in the world’s most populous nation, is now at risk, according to Tang Renjian, China’s minister of agriculture and rural affairs.
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Tang said that authorities will “exhaust all means” to protect the summer grain output with “an attitude of fighting a back-to-back battle”.
“[China’s] grain demands are still showing a trend of rigid growth [and] structural contradictions are significant,” Tang said while noting the inherent difficulty in short-term fixes.
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Beijing has also said it is determined to ensure that at least 120 million hectares (295 million acres) of arable land is reserved for agriculture – a policy known as the “red line”.
However, an article in the state-run Economic Daily last week warned that China is at risk of falling below its red line in about 10 years, given the rate at which the national acreage has been shrinking.
In 2019, China had about 127.9 million hectares of arable land – down 5.6 per cent from a decade prior, according to land-survey data released last year.
Tang also said that while the country will step up efforts to become more self-sufficient in its soybean production, it will also continue to leverage the international market to increase supply.
Judging from [the new rural policy statement], there may be some changes in the state’s soybean policy in 2022
Last year, China imported a record 164.5 million tonnes of grains from the rest of the world – up 18.1 per cent from 2020, according to customs data.
Kong Xiangzhi, a professor with the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University, said on Wednesday that China’s sowing acreage of soybean and oil plants could potentially increase by more than 1.47 million hectares this year.
If achieved, this would reverse the 1.47-million-hectare shrinkage in soybean planting acreage last year, according to National Bureau of Statistics data.
“Judging from [the new rural policy statement], there may be some changes in the state’s soybean policy in 2022,” Kong said.
