China’s food security: past success and future challenges

Abstract

The rapid growth of China’s economy – averaging 9.1% per year for the 35 years since 1978 – has many implications for China’s domestic food and agriculture sector as well for the global food system. The more the nation’s economy expands, the more food is needed to feed an ever-growing middle class with significantly different consumption patterns than when the economic reforms began. Food security for China is not merely an agricultural, economic, or public health issue, but also an important social and political issue with many domestic and international implications. This article summarizes the seminal issues related to China’s food security debate, including a brief summary of the programs and policies that most credit for the nation’s great success to date in meeting 95% of domestic grain demand. A review of production and yield data at the regional scale for the reform era from a spatial-temporal perspective comparing spatial shifts in domestic proportional production of strategic grains (rice, wheat, corn) over time and space for the period from 1978 to 2011 follows, clearly showing the northward shift in national grain production to regions facing chronic water shortages.

Keywords:

• China
• food security
• agriculture
• grain production

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Victor Winston for the invitation to participate in this symposium, and to both Victor Winston and Andrew Bond of Bellwether Publishing, Ltd. for their support and most useful suggestions over many years. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their efforts on my behalf. Figures 2–5 were designed and produced by Don Sanetra, and I thank him for his flexible creativity and willingness to work under tight deadlines.

Notes

1. The first line of a Mao Zedong four-line poem: [Shǒu li yǒu liáng, xīn lǐ bù huāng] trans: ‘When hands are filled with grain, then hearts are freed from fear.’

2. Tiling is a process, now becoming popular in China but used throughout the US Midwest by the 1860s, whereby a drainage system is inserted below the surface of a field to help remove excess water. Originally, the tiles were made from ceramic, but contemporary ‘tile’ is actually porous plastic piping. Subsoiling is a process whereby a blade is drawn through a farm field at a depth of around 16–24 inches to break up the soil layer below regular plow depth. Subsoiling is controversial, but supporters believe the practice aids drainage and root development.

3. In China total grain production includes all cereals, but also soybeans, as well as tubers adjusted at a 5 to 1 ratio.

4. The Albersen et al. (2002) classification follows several other widely used provincial groupings. They are (1) northeast (Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning); (2) north (Hubei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan); (3) east (Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang); (4) Central (Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi); (5) south (Guangdong and Guangxi); (6) southwest (Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, and Huizhou A.R.); (7) northwest (Xinjiang A.R., Neil Mongol A.R., Jiangxi A.R., Gansu, and Shaanxi); and (8) Plateau (Xijiang A.R. and Qinghai). The Plateau region is not included in the analyses.