Thematic Areas: Food Security and Agriculture

Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture

Food security is defined as: “…all people, at all times, having the physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food in order to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (World Food Summit Plan of Action 1996)

Sustainable agricultural development is defined as: “…the management and conservation of the natural resources base and the orientation of technological and institutional change … to ensure the attainment and continued satisfaction of human need for present and future generations, (and to ensure such development) is environmentally non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable.” (FAO 1988)

Overview

Food security has always been a principal concern of China’s leaders and today, through concentrated efforts, grain self-sufficiency stands at 95%. Rural reforms have been gradual, deliberate, and largely effective as the rural sector has increasingly moved away from a planned economy – despite several remnants of the central-planning legacy and continuing market interventions by government. However, the productivity gains from transition policies are largely exhausted. Sustaining rural income growth will require a carefully crafted effort for several reasons, not the least of which is that many of the conditions that facilitated earlier growth no longer prevail. In addition, China’s rural products, input, labour, and land market, while improving, are still in their infancy.

Since the early 1990s, the central government in China has re-emphasised its call upon government at all levels to give priority to food security and sustainable agriculture and place agriculture at the top of national and local development agendas. This was followed up in 1992 when the government made a commitment at the UN Conference on Environment and Development to translate the sustainable development concept into its national development strategy. Since then, sustainable development has become a guideline for all agricultural and rural development policies. In November 1996, China pledged its commitment to the Rome Declaration on World Food Security.

Assessment

Food production and sufficient supply for the country has, on the whole, been secured in spite of very limited natural resources and the growing population. However, due to insufficient local food production, lack of distribution and food supply systems and low incomes, food security still remains a crucial problem for many poor households. The shortage of arable land and resources is compounded by obsolete or absent technology and insufficient financial inputs into agriculture.

The food insecure are disproportionately concentrated in areas where both governments and markets are weak and other risks, such as potential climate damage, are considerable. Safety nets are thus required to keep people from suffering chronic or transitory food insecurity. The Government has set a target of maintaining 95% self-sufficiency in grain as a national food security goal and recent macroeconomic data on grain production has confirmed that China has easily achieved this target. In fact, China accounts for about 20% of total global grain production, but its participation in world markets has been very modest, at no more than 5% of its total production. However, food security is less concerned with averages, and more concerned with the well being of the households most at risk. Huge disparities in income and food consumption exist between rural and urban areas, between 25 coastal areas and inland areas. In 1998, it was estimated that about 42 million rural people still remainin absolute poverty and a large proportion of those are experiencing widespread malnutrition, of whom, women and children are the most vulnerable groups. The poorest households are also most often those further disadvantaged by high dependency ratios, ill health, low education and other difficulties.

Despite this, the trend of reduction in protein-energy malnutrition is clearly and strongly improving. A reduction by almost 50% in eight years is a considerable achievement. But note that children in rural areas (ethnic minorities in particular) are much more likely than their urban counterparts to be malnourished, and that the trend of reduction in malnourishment in urban areas has been faster than in rural areas.

Sustainable Agriculture
Over the last twenty years, the agricultural sector in China has experienced faster development than in the previous thirty years, but agricultural development in the past two decades, coupled with population growth, has also created serious resource degradation and environmental problems.

China has 130 million ha. of arable land, 227 million ha. of forestry land and 226 million ha. of grassland, representing approximately 14%, 24% and 28% of the country’s territory, respectively. However, considering the huge population, the per capita arable land resources are very limited, at an average of 0.1 ha, and even decreasing. The main causes are rapid increases in the use of land for non-farming purposes, deforestation and erosion that is threatening sustainable agriculture in almost all provinces of China. From 1985 to 1996, the erosion percentage increased from 13.5% to 19%. Annual average growth in erosion is about 3-3.5% and, although control efforts are being made in all provinces, only 30% of areas susceptible to erosion are covered by control measures.

Analysis

A closer analysis reveals that national food security does not translate into household food security or sustainable production patterns.

Household food insecurity
The reasons for household food shortages are complex; they include the socio-political situation of agriculture and the farmer, the small acreage of per capita arable land, low soil productivity and fertility, the harsh climate in certain regions coupled with frequent natural disasters and a lack of modern agricultural techniques which result in production below subsistence level

In addition, many households lack funds to purchase food as opportunities for off-farm income generating activities are limited. The large differences in wage rates between rural and urban areas has provided powerful migration incentives which in turn have led to attempts to stem the flow of people from rural areas with various administrative barriers being set up against those seeking urban employment (though these barriers are increasingly being relaxed). Difficulties are compounded by the poor financial infrastructure in many rural areas where credit, or even microcredit, opportunities are generally absent.

Food production and consumption
There is a contradiction between national food security policies and farmers’ individual production goals. The goal of government is to produce sufficient food, especially grain, for the whole country while the primary production goal of the farmer is to secure food for household consumption and secondly to increase household income. Although the Government has implemented a favourable price policy to encourage grain production, in practice the contradiction remains.

Limited land resources will continue to be a serious challenge for national food security as increasing demand for food causes greater environmental degradation and reduction of available resources. In the Eastern provinces farmland area is declining by 400,000 ha/year. In the Western provinces arable land has relatively lower productivity and is under the threat of both desertification and soil erosion, while a shortage of water is the major constraint in the semi-arid western provinces. China’s entry into the WTO and the opening up of China’s market for grain imports should relieve some of the pressure to produce grain on marginal land. (At the same time, WTO entry will demand a carefully planned programme to help farmers enter a new more competitive agricultural market.

Sustainable agricultural development
Experiences in China and other countries have shown that farmers are the main actors and stakeholders of rural resources as well as the target group of agricultural and rural development policy. Without their active participation in the whole policy planning and implementation process, it is impossible to achieve development and policy goals. In market economies, farmers can make their own decisions on resource allocation and capital investment according to their production goals. National development policies should similarly reflect the objectives of the farmers.

It is also significant, as women shoulder more and more agricultural responsibilities, that there is still gender discrimination in the land allocation process. Rural women’s interests and land-use rights at the community level are not sufficiently protected. Land-use contracts are normally signed by men and, in the case of divorce, for example, women will almost always lose access to arable land.

Priority Issues

Basic Services
Increasing household food production and income alone does not assure that people consume the right kind of nutrients in the right quantities at the right times to maintain health and productivity. A large proportion of existing households could prevent child malnutrition, if they used existing resources optimally by making small changes in health and nutrition behaviour. Targeted (micro-) nutrition education programmes and related courses on literacy training, education and health services are necessary and are especially important for women.

Capacity building
Eco-agricultural and organic farming should be encouraged while resource saving and environmentally sound technologies are progressively introduced. At present there are large areas of grassland that are under-utilised or not used at all, while in other areas over-grazing has occurred. The promotion of a rotational system of animal husbandry in these areas would be one way of helping food security and sustainable agricultural development.

Gender Equality
In order to respond to the needs and interest of those who work on the land, the majority of whom are women, policies should be introduced from the bottom up through a consultative process with the public on a national level. These policies should at the same time encourage long term investment in land so as to maintain balance between women and men farmers’ immediate needs and future interests.

Regional Equity
The national poverty programme has successfully targeted poor counties and has had positive impact on economic growth. Improved targeting can ensure that the poorest are reached. The Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) system, for example, developed by WFP, has proved useful in helping to target poverty alleviation programmes to poorer townships and individual households.

Investment in agriculture, roads, telecommunications, electricity and irrigation can in the long term increase the productivity and sustainability of agriculture and income of the poor. The Food-For-Work scheme (FFW) is a cost-effective mechanism to improve rural infrastructure in food-insecure areas. Participation in FFW will help meet the short-term immediate food needs of poor households, and at the same time, provide householders with an opportunity to invest in their future by creating lasting assets.

Socio-economic Diversification
Micro finance programmes providing credit and saving services (overwhelmingly to women) have proved to be effective means of achieving sustained poverty reduction and food security at the local level. Improvement in the institutional capacity to involve women borrowers in making decisions which effect them will offer a chance to resolve the question of men’s control of land.