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BeSeen Briefing
Experts see no strain on grain
China's huge stockpiles of grain and its growing production capacity mean that the country's food security is under no imminent threat, even though consumption has been outpacing production, officials and academics said yesterday.
But the situation should never be neglected or allowed to evolve into a long-term trend, considering the country's shrinking area sown with grain crops and its increasing population, they said.
At a national agricultural conference held in Beijing the weekend before last, Minister of Agriculture Du Qinglin said China's grain consumption outpaced production in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Citing national statistics and his ministry's projections, Du said China has been harvesting less grain since 1999, when it harvested 508.4 million tons.
Last year's grain production was up marginally over the previous year but was still behind consumption. Output is almost certain to plummet again this year due to further reductions in the area used to grow crops, Du said.
Zhu Changguo, vice-director of the State Bureau of Grain Reserves, said this year's grain production area has been cut by 3 per cent, as many farmers have switched to more profitable crops such as fruit and vegetables.
Coupled with natural disasters, this is expected to drive the country's grain output down by 1 per cent to 451 million tons this year.
Farmers Change Occupation to Herdsmen
The farmers in Zhijiang of Hubei Province began to feed livestock depend on the natural pasture in Zhijiang of HuBei province. The farmers are changing occupation to herdsmen. By the end of June, 2003, the number of counties in which people live depended on livestock has reached 167 and 1629 families lived on livestock husbandry absolutely. The inventory number of goat reached 52 thousand head.
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