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China's small farmers face increasing challenges because of land and water resource constraints and the effects of climate change. With the strengthened agricultural stimulus policies, poverty reduction and social protection programs, as well as the expanding international food trade, up to now China has achieved food security through small farm ag...
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... Currently, China's food demand and supply are in a tight balance, and with the acceleration of urbanization and the escalation of food consumption, food demand in China is experiencing irreversible growth (Christiansen, 2009;Fukase & Martin, 2016). However, due to constraints on natural resources and rising labour costs, in the absence of breakthroughs in agricultural science and technology, it is difficult for China to increase grain output Zhu, 2011). In these circumstances, China's food security faces some challenges (Huang & Yang, 2017;Ghose, 2014). ...
Reducing food loss and waste has recently become an important aspect of ensuring China’s national food security. Because of the importance of household grain storage, the government of China implemented the Scientific Grain Storage Project (SGSP) to encourage farmers to adopt advanced storage facilities (mainly metal silos for rice storage). Based on survey data of 1159 households in 21 provinces, we first analysed the factors that affect farmers’ adoption of metal silos and then used Propensity Score Matching method to assess the impact of metal silos on household rice storage and storage losses. The number of years of schooling, religious beliefs of household decision makers, family size, annual net income, Cooperative membership, planting area, and awareness of grain saving practices were significantly correlated with household decisions on the adoption of metal silos. Metal silos significantly extended the duration of rice storage by households by 18 days, reduced rice storage losses by 43% from 1.6% to 0.7% of output, and protected rice from rodent damage during storage. Promoting the adoption of metal silos by farmers is important for ensuring China’s food security. The adoption of metal silos can increase the supply of rice by 626,800 t per year; save 86,600 ha of land, 29,400 t of fertilizer, and 0.82 billion m3 of water; reduce carbon emissions by 232,200 t, and meet the food consumption needs of 1.39 million people per year. The government should continue the SGSP scheme and encourage farmers to adopt advanced storage facilities.
... Given the acceleration of urbanization and the escalation of living standard, food demand growth in China has become irreversible (Christiansen, 2009;Fukase & Martin, 2016). However, natural resource constraints have made it more difficult for China to increase its grain production Zhu, 2011). As a result, China may face food security challenges (Ghose, 2014;Huang & Yang, 2017). ...
Reducing post harvest losses has been an option to enhance food security. Hence, the Chinese government has implemented the “scientific grain storage project” to improve household storage conditions and reduce storage losses. Based on the data of 1202 rural households from 23 provinces in China, we used propensity score matching (PSM) to measure the effects of advanced storage facilities on household food security. The results reveal that advanced storage facilities significantly reduced household maize storage losses by 60%, allowing farmers to save 33 kg of maize (worth US$21) and reducing the maize storage loss rate from 2.85 to 0.87%. Adopters of advanced storage facilities stored their maize for 0.2 quarters longer and reduced the use of pesticides during storage. At the same time, using advanced storage facilities significantly strengthens household food security and reduces the proportion of market purchases to meet households’ food consumption. Moreover, the adoption of advanced storage facilities also has important implications for China’s national food security and resource conservation. Accordingly, the government should continue to encourage farmers to adopt advanced storage facility practices.
... Third, grain consumption habits should be changed to adapt to the severe food security environment. Specific proposals include strengthening agricultural stimulus policies, as well as poverty reduction and social security schemes [40]; providing agricultural credit and increasing off-farm employment [41]; providing a variety of fertilizers, crop varieties, and irrigation methods [42][43][44]; developing appropriate agricultural scale operations [45]; optimizing the composition of residents' diets, reducing food waste; adjusting the composition of grain consumption [46,47]; and increasing the convenience of the grain trade [48]. ...
... From the perspective of food supply, improvements should be made in agricultural production techniques to increase food production and quality and to facilitate food storage and trade flows, including providing diversified fertilizers and crop varieties, improving irrigation methods [42][43][44], developing appropriate agricultural scale operations [45], providing agricultural credits to promote agricultural production and increase grain production [41], supporting small-scale farmers to integrate organically with modern agriculture [117], paying attention to aquaculture [43], expanding grain storage and logistics facilities [118], and improving the international food security trade order [48,92]. In terms of access to food, poverty has been identified as the root cause of food insecurity, and access to food should be made more affordable by increasing people's income [16]-including through enhanced agricultural incentives, poverty reduction, and social security programs [40,119]-and by increasing nonfarm employment [41,120]. From the perspective of food use, food consumption habits should be changed to adapt to the severe food security environment, including optimizing the composition of residents' diets and adjusting the structure of grain consumption [46,47]. ...
The issue of food security has been widely studied by the international community. To reveal the research situation as it pertains to food security objectively, this paper comprehensively utilizes bibliometrics techniques (i.e., Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace) to explore the research status and development trends in the area of food security. The results show that: (1) food security research has shown an increasing trend during the past 30 years. The 2013–2019 period was shown to be an active period with a high yield of articles, which were published mainly in the developed regions of Europe and America. Particularly, the number of articles published in the United States was far ahead of other countries in the world. (2) Food security research involved agriculture, environmental science and ecology, food science and technology, and business economics. The research topic is an interdisciplinary subject with a good momentum of development and a large space remaining for research. (3) Climate change, poverty, gender, nutrition, and diet structure have been the focuses of food security research in recent years. Food security in China, India, and sub-Saharan Africa has attracted wide attention. (4) Food security research is becoming more and more mature. The research scope extended from food security to food security and water and land resource security. Research topics range from decentralized to systematic. (5) Food security research is likely to gain much attention in the future based on three pillars: food supply, food access, and food use. Sustainability and diversity of food supply, along with dietary restructuring and food conservation initiatives, are expected to be new trends in future research on land management.
... China also adopted price distinguished policies for staple food grains, such as rice, wheat and corn. The policy aimed at rice and wheat was described as a minimum procurement price policy, and a policy of complete or virtual self-sufficiency in which these grains can be predictable for the foreseeable future (Zhu, 2011;Gale, 2013). When the price of cotton floated dramatically, the government would carry out price regulation policy. ...
This study examines the quantitative effects of market price in cotton producing areas of China. It also
analyzes the qualitative effects of price regulation on cotton production. Secondary time series data
were collected from National Bureau of Statistics in China, between 1990 and 2013. Calculation of the
growth rate of cotton in production was done using linear trend model and multi-regression model to
analyze the correlations between production, area and market price. The results of regression between
the dependent variable (cotton production) and independent variables such as the previous year’s area,
current year’s area and the previous year’s market price showed that the R-Square and adjusted RSquare
values are 0.89 and 0.87, respectively, and the t-statistics of all independent variables rejected
null hypothesis of no correlation at the 1% significant level. This infers that the market price and
cultivating area of cotton crop has a highly significant relationship with the production. What’s more,
the coefficients of current year’s area and previous year’s market price are higher than 0, denoting a
positive impact on production. However, coefficient of previous year’s area is smaller than 0,
implicating a negative influence on cotton production. In addition, the value of dry weight calculated is
1.94, which means no series auto-correlation exists. Despite this, it can be concluded from the
regression results is that cultivating area and market price have time lag impacts on cotton production.
Furthermore, price regulation has indirect positive impacts on cotton production.
... A number of studies have explored various aspect of the Chinese food industry. For example Zhou (2010), Liao (2010, and Zhu (2011) considered the issue of food security, whereas Sun et al. (2014), Wei et al. (2012, and Scott et al. (2014) focused on food safety issue. ...
Using the innovation production function approach, this paper focuses on the determinants of product innovation in China’s food processing industries. Empirical analysis based on firm level data over the period 2005–07 shows that R&D intensity has a positive and statistically significant impact on product innovation in China’s feed processing industry. Large firms in China’s cereals milling, feed processing, and meat products & by-products processing industries are more likely to be involved in product innovation. Export intensity affects product innovation in cereal milling and feed processing industries. Foreign-invested feed processing firms are more likely to be involved in product innovation.
... The contemporary food supply in China is complex because of the country's large size, its millions of smallholders connected to (often distant) markets through unevenly developed physical, commercial and institutional infrastructure and the rapid growth of urban centres, which have increased the physical and social distance between food producers and consumers (Scott et al., 2014;Zhu, 2011;Garnett and Wilkes, 2014). For decades, the predominant goal of China's food policy has been to secure affordable food for a large, increasing population of low-paid workers, occasionally to the detriment of the environment and human health (Cheng, 2012). 1 Economic progress has resulted in a shift away from a grain-based to a substantially more meat-and poultry-based diet (Lam et al., 2013;Yang et al., 2011), which has made food more susceptible to safety risks. ...
Consuming safe and sustainable food requires trust. Consumer trust in food can be established in different ways, including through personal relationships or various institutional arrangements established by government, private companies and/or civil-society organisations. The recent increase in food-safety incidents and sustainability concerns in China suggests a dwindling trust in the current government-dominated food governance arrangement. This paper investigates whether emerging alternative trust arrangements and modes of food supply are better able to build consumer trust in contemporary China. Based on a survey of urban middle-class consumers in Beijing using various (i.e., alternative and conventional) food-supply modes, the role and importance of personal and institutional trust arrangements are compared. We found that even among the wealthier and more educated consumers in Beijing, only a small proportion regularly use alternative food-supply schemes; most rely on conventional wet markets and supermarkets. Buying food is primarily constrained by convenience, freshness and the price of food and less by food-safety concerns. In Beijing, trust in food-safety information remains largely derived from the government and less from the market (private certification schemes) or civil society. These findings contribute to the increasing body of knowledge on the embedded character of food consumption and on the relevance of designing policy strategies that connect institutional context and particular consumption practices. In our conclusion, we argue that to secure safe and sustainable food provision, the present government-based trust regime in China requires strengthening through linking up with market- and civil society-based trust regimes, complemented by elements of personalised trust.
... To address this problem, a debate on the abolition of China's 1.8 billion mu arable land red line has been launched by the country's academic community. Some scholars partaking in this debate have suggested that the arable land red line should not be abolished and that land-use efficiency must be improved; others have argued that the arable land red line can be exceeded and that the key issue is rather increasing food production [21]. Some have alternately proposed that a balance can be achieved by methods of supplementing urban construction land and rural farmland [22]. ...
Regional differences in the character of urbanization in China are substantial. The promotion of what has been termed "new-type urbanization" cannot, as a result of these regional differences, be expected to follow a universal approach-rather, such a development must objectively adhere to locational and category-specific principles and adopt differentiated urbanization development models. Regional categorization is often used in geography, but is rarely deployed in research addressing human and social problems relating to urbanization. In March 2014, China published the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020), which calls for the scientific and reasonable planning of "new-type urbanization," and appropriate regional categorizations are urgently needed in order to guide this reform. Responding to this challenge, this research engaged in the design of a "dominantly quantitative analysis, qualitatively supplemented" method in order to divide China into 5 main regions and 47 sub-regions in terms of new-type urbanization. The paper discusses the features and key problems of each region. This study introduces a new method for regional categorization, thereby remedying the lack of regional categorization in relation to "new-type urbanization" in China, and ultimately promoting the development of regional categorization in the humanities as a valuable reference for healthy and sustainable Chinese urbanization.
... China's grains policies also distinguish between the staple grains, rice and wheat, and feed grains such as corn. Policy for rice and wheat is explicitly described as a minimum procurement price policy, and a policy of complete or virtual self-sufficiency in these grains can be expected for the foreseeable future (Zhu, 2011;Gale, 2013). Policy for corn, while in many respects similar to that for wheat and rice, is distinguished from staple grains policy as being based on a system of ad hoc temporary buying and storage. ...
This report examines China's 2011-13 attempt to maintain a high level of price support for its cotton producers, analyzing the policy's motivation, its consequences to date, and the impacts of various adjustment alternatives China might pursue. With China's wages rising rapidly in recent years, cotton production costs there have been rising faster than in the rest of the world. Rising costs both helped motivate China's policymakers to strengthen their price support for cotton production in 2011 and ensured that the policy ultimately proved unsustainable. After several years of sharply lower cotton consumption and sharply rising state-owned stockpiles of cotton, China in 2014 began switching producer support to direct subsidies, and focusing support on producers in the largest producing region, Xinjiang. Additional reforms include plans to restore market forces to a leading role in determining China's cotton prices. But China's large role in world cotton markets and the unprecedented size of the Government's stocks mean that difficult choices lie ahead for China's policymakers. Policy decisions in China will continue to have a significant impact on the rest of the world, and lower Chinese import quotas for cotton could reduce world cotton prices significantly.
... Total cropland is expected to decline from 135 million ha in 2003 to 129 million ha in 2030 (Guanghong 2012 ). Since 2008, the central government has made urbanization, and agricultural and rural development a tactic to counter the global fi nancial crisis and economic slowdown, as well as a long-term strategy for sustained economic growth (Ling 2011 ). The area of cereal production decreased from 97 million ha in 1978 to 93 million ha in 1995 due to the occupation of farmland for construction, and roads, and other developments (Xiong and Conway 2009 ). ...
Reducing hunger and malnutrition and improving food security have come to the forefront of global political agenda. In the wake of recent spells of food price hike, national and supranational development organizations and governments have begun to express serious concerns about the world's capacity to feed its burgeoning population. In response to the target of increasing food production by 70% in 2050, many countries are formulating their agricultural policies to promote domestic food self-sufficiency and many are building international networks for outsourcing food supply beyond national borders. In the face of massive demand for food for its growing population, China is both strengthening its food self-sufficiency strategies and relying on large-scale imports from international market which has been a major driver of food price inflation in recent years. In China, increase in income and socioeconomic status on one hand have dramatically improved dietary intake and overall nutritional status of the population, and are creating an enormous pressure on land and water resources and natural environments on the other. Maintaining food and water security and for its huge population with its limited resources while at the same time sustaining the economic growth momentum are offering significant challenges to China's macroeconomic prospects. China's domestic food production and self-sufficiency status have certain repercussions on the volatility of global agri-food market and food security in food-import and food-aid-dependent countries. The objectives of this study is to provide an in-depth overview of China's food production and demand scenario with a particular focus on its challenging perspectives toward food secure 2050. The first half of the paper is designed to show recent trends in food production and consumption and the impacts on global food market. The second half describes the major challenges with a brief discussion on policy implication.
Chinese food policy has changed over the last two decades from a productivist focus to embracing a precautionary approach to food safety. What are the drivers of this change? And what are the implications for the Chinese political regime? While acknowledging the relevance of global dynamics, we claim that domestic dynamics have largely accounted for this change. A series of food scandals in the 2000s has caused concerns among Chinese consumers and ultimately lead to a contested governance of food safety in the nation that has challenged the legitimacy of the regime itself. The government has responded by introducing new precautionary measures, as theorists of responsive authoritarianism would predict. Contrary to such predictions, though, the Chinese government toughened provisions to repress violations. Due to these characteristics, we conclude that the Chinese approach to food safety that emerged after the food scandals can be synthesised as a form of precautionary authoritarianism.
