Miller Magazine Issue: 121 January 2020

CHINA 80 MILLER / JANUARY 2020 China is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximate- ly 9,600,000 square kilometers, it is the third-largest country by total area. Since China began to open up and reform its economy in 1978, GDP growth has averaged almost 10 percent a year. China is now the second-largest global economy, the largest exporter and has the largest exchange reserves in the world. China is the world’s largest agricultural producer by volume and the world’s second-largest agricultural importer by value. Agriculture employs about a third of the country’s workforce, but it’s only responsible for 10% of the GDP. China is a global producer of rice, cotton, pork, fish, wheat, tea, pota- toes, corn, peanuts, millet, barley, apples, cotton, oil- seed, pork, fish and more. Animal husbandry, fishing, and aquafarming are also important parts of China’s economy. With one-fifth of the world population, China ac- counts for a quarter of total global food production. China has recently enjoyed a run of good harvests. The Chinese government has established a nation- al strategy on food security featuring self-sufficiency based on domestic grain production, guaranteed food production capacity, moderate imports, and technological support. Abiding by the principle of ba- sic food self-sufficiency based on domestic grain pro- duction, China practices the strictest farmland pro- tection system and a strategy of sustainable farmland use and innovative application of agricultural technol- ogy to increase farmland productivity. Through sup- ply-side structural reform and institutional innovation in agriculture, China has raised grain productivity, modernized grain circulation, improved food-supply structure, and achieved steady development in the grain industry. In 70 years, China's grain production has stepped up to a new level, changing from a shortage of grain supply in general to a basic balance of supply and demand. The country's grain output stood at 657.89 million tons in 2018. In 1949, the grain output was only 113.18 million tons. In 70 years, agricultural sci- ence and technology, such as water-saving irrigation and plastic film mulching, have been widely promot- ed and contributed much to agricultural production. Currently, China supplies 95 percent of its own needs for grain. In 2001-2018, soybean accounted for 75.4 percent of imported grains, and the two main staple grains of rice and wheat together accounted for less than 6 percent. China plans to maintain a grain planting area of above 110 million ha, and a comprehensive grain production capacity of above 600 million tons. At present, the country has 134.88 million hectares of cultivated land, an increase of more than 4.8 million hectares over 1996. There are more than 117 million hectares sown with grain. To encourage farmers to grow grain, increase their