CC BY
5ZHANG HUI
Applicant for the Faculty of Economics of the National University of Uzbekistan
SOME ASPECTS OF FOOD SECURITY IN CHINA AT THE CURRENT STAGE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Ensuring food security in China has been traditionally a top priority. This topic also attracts special attention of the international expert community, in which discussions continue about stability, about the prospects for agro-industrial production, as well as about the potential impact of the growing food consumption in China on the world food market. The latter circumstance, as many experts point out, can be especially relevant in times of crisis, given that the PRC accounts for almost 1/5 of the world's population.
The Chinese leaders consider food security in the PRC as the basis for the country's social, economic and even political stability and, in this regard, emphasizes necessity of the self-sufficiency of the national agro-industrial sector. The White Paper "Food Issue in the People's Republic of China" published by the State Council of the People's Republic of China in 1996 stated the aim of ensuring 95% of the consumption of rice, wheat and corn of domestic production. In the White Paper "Food Security in the PRC", published in 2019, the government reaffirmed its policy of transforming China into a "great food producer" [1]. The document reiterates the need to ensure the satisfaction of basic needs in cereals using internal resources and to guarantee the "absolute safety" of the basic food products of the population. Along with this, the readiness of the Chinese leaders to promote its own "model" and its experience in resolving food security issues abroad is underlined.
Against the background of accelerating urbanization processes, within the framework of the program of the 13th five-year plan for the development of the Chinese economy (2016-2020), the strategy "Stock grain in land and technologies" was put forward, the goal of which was declared to ensure food security by preserving the area of arable land, improving the quality of their processing and management, as well as through the introduction of advanced technologies to increase the productivity of the country's agriculture. Since 2015, the provincial governments of the PRC have been primarily responsible for the implementation of the national food security strategy, while the Central People's Government in Beijing has been assigned a leading and coordinating role. In the same context, there is a whole system for assessing the work of governors (heads of provincial governments) in the implementation of the tasks set by the center [2].
According to Ye Xingqing, head of the Rural Economy Research Department at the Development Research Center under the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Ye Xingqing, China's agricultural industry is currently entering a new, transitional stage associated with improving its quality and openness to the outside world. The new doctrinal setting of the Chinese authorities is the emphasis on a broad understanding of the "production capacity" involved in ensuring food security. This understanding includes not only the quantitative production of food, but also issues related to production chains (redistribution, logistics, storage, regulation and control of products, and so on).
In 2019, food production per capita in China was 474 kg (an increase of 14% since 1996 and 126% since 1949). At the same time, since 2015, the total volume of food production, despite annual fluctuations, has remained at the level of about 630-660 million tons, which indicates that a certain "limit" has been reached in increasing the productivity of Chinese agriculture. In this regard, the agenda is to intensively develop this industry and improve the quality of manufactured products to meet the changing needs of the population, especially the middle class. Along with this, since 2016, China has seen a stable growth in food purchases abroad: this indicator increased by 23%, to $ 122.6 billion, in 2018, which at that time amounted to about 5.7% of all imports to China. The most demanded agricultural products for import, as a rule, are soybeans, corn, dairy products, sorghum, dry fodder stillage, wheat and so on.
Despite the successes achieved in increasing agricultural productivity, the problem of ensuring food security in China remains. Its solution is complicated by both the large number of food consumers and their growing needs, as well as the exhaustion of opportunities for extensive growth and the increasing environmental pressure on water and land resources (as a result of which the quality of food is also reduced) [3]. Added to this are massive outbreaks of disease in the livestock sector (such as African swine fever in 2018-2019), droughts and natural disasters that periodically disrupt China's already delicate food sector balance. The recent economic and logistical crisis in China, provoked by the epidemic of the coronavirus infection COVID-19, further increased the tension in the country's agriculture. As a result, in some regions, the start of sowing works were late, as well as there were interruptions in the supply of fertilizers and feed and problems with sales of agro-industrial products.
Although Chinese scientists have made significant progress in developing new types of fertilizers and modifying seeds, in general, these developments are losing competition to technological solutions of leading Western companies. The need to ensure high yields has made China dependent on imports of fertilizers and seeds. In order to reduce the risks to
food sovereignty, China has set itself the goal of gaining control over the world market for the production of seeds and fertilizers [4]. This led to the closing deal between China National Chemical Corp. (ChemChina) and one of the world leaders in the production of seeds and fertilizers - the Swiss company Syngenta [5]. This is the largest takeover by a Chinese company in the Western world at a $ 43 billion deal, with 100 percent of Syngenta going to ChemChina. The purchase of a Swiss company will not only protect China from problems with the supply of seeds and fertilizers, but also give the Chinese leverage over most agricultural countries in the world, since Syngenta controls a significant part of the seed and fertilizer market in the USA, Russia, and the EU.
According to official estimates, in the foreseeable future, cereal production in the PRC will only just keep up with the growth in consumption, which will require additional efforts by the authorities to ensure food security. Chinese experts believe that in the medium and long term, the biggest challenge to China's food security will be the mismatch between the price and cost of food produced in China and abroad. In other words, the most difficult situation will arise when, in order to maintain the competitiveness of national products, the state will have to drastically increase subsidies for agriculture. In the face of growing financial risks, as well as trade friction with the United States, such a policy may lead to additional problems in the country's economy.
Literature
1. Георгий Сизов. Аграрный эксперт: китайский подход к продовольственной безопасности и возможности для России. URL: http://www.apecom.ru/proiects/item.php9SECTION ID=93&ELEMENT I D=6110
2. Муминов Н.Г. ХИТОЙ ХАЛК РЕСПУБЛИКАСИДА КИШЛОК ХУЖАЛИГИНИ ИСЛОХ ЭТИШ ВА ОЗИК-ОВКАТ БОЗОРЛАРИНИ РИВОЖЛАНТИРИШНИНГ ЙУНАЛИШЛАРИ// Экономика и финансы (Узбекистан). 2016. № 2. С. 46-54.
3. Муминов Н.Г. ХИТОЙ ХАЛК РЕСПУБЛИКАСИДА АМАЛГА ОШИРИЛГАН ЕР ИСЛОХОТЛАРИ - ЯНГИ ТИПДАГИ ХУЖАЛИК ТИЗИМИНИ ШАКЛЛАНТИРИШ АСОСИ СИФАТИДА // Экономика и финансы (Узбекистан). 2016. № 1. С. 8.
4. Антон Бугаенко. Стратегия продовольственной безопасности Китая
- влияние на Казахстан // Казахстан в глобальных процессах. №4, 2016. С.26-37.
5. «ChemChina's Syngenta Takeover Seen on Track With Mega-Merger».
- Bloomberg// https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-14/syngenta-falls-as-chemchina-said-to-plan-merger-with-sinochem
