To ensure its food security, govt has to support farmers to grow more

A farmer ties wheat that has been harvested in Shibapan village in Luoyang city, Henan province, June 3, 2015. [Photo/IC]

The State Council held a news conference on food security on Tuesday, in which it explained the recent rapid increase in grain imports despite the huge domestic reserves. People's Daily commented on Thursday:

Since the 2008 global financial crisis, the global grain market has changed because the supply has increased greatly while the demand declined. Considering the appreciation of the renminbi against the main global currencies, grain importing has become a profit-making business.

Thus voices have emerged calling for China to cancel its grain import quota. Some even claim the State should end the subsidies to grain producers. These have led to people doubting the government policies.

That's why the news conference came in time. It has once again emphasized the need to defend food security and decrease the country's reliance on the global market.

China currently produces 600 million tons of grain, which barely meet the domestic demand; additionally it must import 60 million tons of beans to support its food processing industries. The supply in the global market is 300 million tons at the most and more than 70 nations are trying to buy them.

Besides market competition, many countries consider grain a strategic material, and they may curb exports when they find China is in huge need of them. Therefore, China could not rely on the global market.

Subsidies to grain producers are not provided by China alone, either. Japan and the Republic of Korea subsidize their farmers to grow grain. The population of China is 1.37 billion and it has no other choice.

Of course, the grain importing companies can improve on the policy, too, by better storing and selecting grain and negotiating better prices in the global market.

But the basis for the country's food security is to insist on the State policy of subsidizing farmers to grow grain.