April 19, 2012

China should expand overseas farming to ensure food security

In order to ensure enough food for its people because of limited land and low productivity at home, China should expand its farming overseas, agriculture experts said on Wednesday (Apr 18).

China's farm trade deficit will continue to widen to about US$40 billion in 2012 following an increase of nearly 50% in 2011 to US$34.12 billion, according to an estimate by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences think tank.

"While largely relying on domestic supplies for agriculture products, we should also fully utilise the international market," Zhu Gang, a researcher with the Rural Research Institute of the Academy, told a news conference.

"We should actively explore overseas resources by combining 'imports' and 'go overseas' to ensure stable supplies of agriculture products," said Zhu on the sidelines of the news conference, called for the publication of an academy study on rural China.

China's per capita farmland is less than 40% of the global average and water resources are at a quarter. It has no comparative advantages in farming, the academy said. It said some Asian and African countries had vast areas of uncultivated land and investment in farming there by Chinese companies should boost global food supplies, which would also mean stable supplies for China.

About 40 Chinese companies are involved in overseas farming in more than 30 countries, with investment totalling CNY15.3 billion (US$2.43 billion). Despite good harvests in China over the past eight years, increases in output are not able to keep pace with higher consumption at a time of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. China, the world's top rice producer, became a net importer of corn, rice and wheat for the first time in 2011.

"Supplies of agriculture products are tightening, despite years of bumper harvests, growth of demand has shown no sign of a slowdown," Guo Wei, the head of the rural department of the State Council's research office, told the conference.