COVID-19 recentlyThe epidemic spread all over the world, causing panic hoarding in various countries.Food. In order to cope with the impact of the epidemic, many countries have taken a variety of measures to protect their own countries.Food supply is sufficient, for example, some countries start national inventory plans to increase grain reserves; some grainExporting countries restrict grain exports, someThe importing country will expand the scale of imports. ChinaWill food security be affected?
Cheng Guoqiang, a special professor at Tongji University, said in an interview with the Economic Daily that if the world epidemic is still not effectively controlled at a later stage, the risk of the global food crisis caused by the epidemic may be a high probability event. While gathering efforts to combat the epidemic, China also has a solid foundation to deal with the risks of the global food crisis. At present, China's food security situation is in the best period in history, with bumper harvests in successive years, sufficient stocks, and food supply will not be out of stock or out of stock.
The production of food rations in China has the absolute safety guarantee ability, and the degree of dependence on import is low. China has always attached great importance to grain and agricultural production. Since reform and opening up, especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has steadily increased its comprehensive agricultural production capacity through various measures such as policy support, science and technology-driven, and deepening reform. Grain output has been stable at more than 600 million tons for seven consecutive years, the self-sufficiency rate of grain has exceeded 95%, and the two major grain rations, rice and wheat, have been fully self-sufficient. However, there is a structural shortage of grain in China, the supply of high-quality rice and wheat is insufficient, there is a gap between production and demand in corn, and the self-sufficiency rate of soybeans is less than 20%. China imports more than 100 million tons of grain every year, mainly soybeans and coarse grains, while rice and wheat generally import 2 million tons and 4 million tons respectively, accounting for 1% and 2% of the total domestic consumption respectively.
Soybean is the main agricultural product imported by China and has a high degree of external dependence. In order to ensure the security of soybean supply, China has been expanding the source of soybean import in recent years. Moreover, soybean is not the main grain variety restricted by some grain exporting countries, which has little impact on China's soybean import.
The perfect grain reserve control system and emergency management mechanism are the "Poseidon needle" that our country can successfully deal with all kinds of natural disasters and public health emergencies.
In the past 20 years, China has established and continuously improved the central and local grain reserve system and coordination mechanism. at present, China's grain and oil inventory is at a historical high, both central and local grain reserves are very abundant. In view of the abnormal fluctuations in the grain market caused by various public emergencies and natural disasters, China has established a corresponding grain emergency security mechanism. Large and medium-sized cities have generally established reserves of finished products such as rice noodle oil, which can meet the local supply for 10 to 15 days. At the same time, China's grain and oil market system, distribution and supply network are sound, supply capacity and time effectiveness are reliably guaranteed, and rice noodle oil can be quickly put into the terminal consumer market.
"by continuously strengthening and improving the construction of the grain reserve system and emergency system, China has not only withstood the severe test of frequent and recurrent natural disasters such as the Wenchuan earthquake and ice and snow disasters, and successfully responded to the global food crisis in 2008. moreover, during this critical period of dealing with the severe challenges of the epidemic situation of COVID-19, it has also effectively ensured the effective supply of food in various places, especially in key epidemic areas. It has played the role of 'ballast stone' to stabilize the market and calm the hearts of the people. " Cheng Guoqiang said.
At present, the situation of epidemic prevention and control in China continues to improve, and the order of production and life is accelerated. All localities are making every effort to organize spring ploughing production to ensure a bumper summer grain harvest. At the beginning of this year, China formulated the policy objectives of stabilizing grain acreage and grain output, and formulated a series of supporting policies and measures, including strengthening the assessment of the responsibility system of provincial governors for food security. further enhance the local government's sense of responsibility and overall awareness of ensuring food security; increase incentives and support to major grain-producing counties to consolidate local enthusiasm and sense of responsibility for paying attention to grain production. We will further improve the agricultural support policy system, protect the basic income of farmers from growing grain, and protect their enthusiasm for growing grain and farming. "obviously, the upper-hand move of stable grain production this year has laid the foundation for dealing with risks. China is fully able to effectively deal with possible price fluctuations in the global food market and food security crisis. " Cheng Guoqiang said.
"Special attention should be paid to promoting the strengthening of international food security and trade policy coordination." Cheng Guoqiang said: the epidemic has had a comprehensive impact on global food production and demand, and if the world epidemic is still not effectively controlled at a later stage, and there is a lack of an effective macro-coordination mechanism for international food security, and the plague of locusts in some countries affects food production, it is likely to worsen the expectations of the global food market and threaten the food security of China and developing countries. Cheng Guoqiang suggested that under the framework and mechanisms of multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and the G20, strengthen the global common responsibility and mission of eradicating hunger and ensuring food security, promote countries to initiate coordination, cooperation and action on global food security and agricultural trade, ensure the effective operation and sustainable promotion of global agriculture and food supply chains, constantly improve and strengthen global food security governance, and jointly maintain global agricultural trade and market order.
