opportunity-china.co.uk
December 2014 35
For this reason, China is seeking to establish a new agricultural management
system. Li Guoxiang, Research Fellow at theRural Development Institute of
the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that a new systemwill be of
great help to China’s food security cause. “The newmanagement systemmust
consider labour-pool declines in rural areas as the urbanisationprocessmoves
forward. As farmersmove to cities, whowill work in grain production?”
“The new systemwill help developmodern agricultural practices and ensure
the food supply with less labour, while protecting farmers.”
What form such an agricultural management systemwill takewill only
become apparent over the coming years; however, it is likely that such a system
will see an increase in the number of large-scale farms. But as Keyzer points out,
large-scale farming is not the ultimate solution for dealingwith a declining labour
pool andmeeting the requirements of feeding China’s growing number of urban
dwellers. “The countryside cannot flourish on large-scale farming alone. Yes, it
will need to consolidate some farms because there are very small farms that don’t
work, and this is already in process. But the countryside should remain livable
also. Not all Chinese can live in cities and there are alsomany older people
who have to live in arable areas and earn incomes. Large-scale farmingwill be
important but it shouldn’t be allowed to dominate the landscape in any province.
It should be one part of thewhole system. If you get these purely large-scale farm
areas, the local people suffer and nobody checks (on) the environment, so it’s
better to have amixed system.”
China can continue feeding itself into the future and, if needed, would be able
to slaughter enough animals in a given year tomeet the requirements of feeding
its population. Furthermore, over the next decade Chinawill move towards
becoming self-sufficient with regards to dairy items. Despite having a sufficient
number of herds to achieve self-sufficiency already in dairy production, current
yields arewholly inadequate. Nonetheless, China’s ability to feed its population is
good news for the rest of theworld. However, the pressure that the government
faces is being able tomeet the needs of an increasingly affluent society inwhich
dietary requirements are continuously changing.
China’sability
to feed its
population is
goodnews
for the rest of
theworld.
“
