Ensuring Global Food Security: What China Says and Does
解决世界粮食安全问题的中国倡议和行动
Chinese Mission to the European Union Publishes an Article
中国驻欧盟使团发表文章
18 July 2022
2022年7月18日
Hit by intense heat, it is reported that some European countries will see their soft-wheat output drop by 7%, lower than their five-year average, another bad news for the already strained global food supply.
当前，一波热浪正席卷欧洲。据媒体报道，由于高温、干旱、风暴等因素影响，部分国家软麦产量将下降7%，低于5年的平均水平，这对原本就紧张的国际粮食供应来说是雪上加霜。
But the problem did not pop up just this summer. In recent years, the consequences of the climate crisis, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, have significantly driven up food prices, tipping millions of people into hunger, especially in developing countries. A recent UN report paints a dire picture. It shows the number of people affected by hunger across the world has risen to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The world is moving in the wrong direction on the SDG targets to end hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition,” warns the report, projecting that 8% of the world’s population will still be affected by hunger in 2030.
近年来，俄乌冲突、新冠疫情、气候变化等多种因素叠加，国际粮食价格飙升，一些发展中国家粮食短缺问题加剧，世界粮食安全面临严峻挑战。联合国粮农组织等5个联合国组织共同发布的最新报告显示，2021年全球受饥饿影响的人数达8.28亿，较2020年增加约4600万，自新冠疫情以来累计增加1.5亿。报告警告称，全球消除饥饿和营养不良的进展正在“开倒车”，无法确保到2030年完成第二个可持续发展目标，即消除饥饿、粮食不安全和一切形式的营养不良。
Long haunted by hunger in its history, China has this saying that food is the primary need of the people, who are the foundation of the country. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government has always put food security as its top priority. After decades of hard work, China’s grain output reached a record of 682 million tons in 2021, the seventh consecutive year that the country’s grain production exceeded 650 million tons, making it the world’s largest grain producer and the third largest grain exporter. Currently, the country is able to produce 95% of its domestic grain consumption. It’s even more remarkable that China managed to produce about one-fourth of the world’s food and feed nearly one-fifth of the world’s population with less than 9% of the world’s arable land. Such achievements in themselves are China’s contribution to world food security, not to mention the inspiration it provides to other developing countries in this process. However, some media reports these days attribute China’s self-sufficiency of food to grain hoarding and further accuse China of disrupting the global food market. These are nothing but lies made out of ill intentions.
民为国基，谷为民命。中国有14亿多人口。新中国成立以来，中国政府始终把解决人民吃饭问题作为治国安邦的首要任务。到2021年，中国粮食产量已经连续7年稳定在1.3万亿斤以上，是世界第一大粮食生产国和第三大粮食出口国，中国的谷物自给率超过95%。中国用不足全球9%的土地实现了约占世界1/4的粮食产量，养活了世界近1/5的人口，这本身就是对全球粮食安全的最大贡献，也是对广大发展中国家的极大鼓舞和良好示范。此前，一些媒体炒作中国在国际市场“囤积粮食”，完全是无中生有，恶意造谣抹黑。
China, as a matter of fact, has been doing its best to help build a world free of hunger, though it remains a developing country with its own food problems. President Xi Jinping made food security one of the eight priority areas of cooperation in the Global Development Initiative, and in his recent speech at the High-level Dialogue on Global Development, he further announced that China would allocate more resources for global development cooperation, work with all sides to deepen global cooperation on poverty reduction and eradication as well as to build capacity for food production and supply.
中国仍是个发展中国家，但中国政府在积极解决自身粮食问题的同时，也在努力为推动实现全球“零饥饿”目标贡献力量。习近平主席提出全球发展倡议，把粮食安全作为八大重点合作领域之一。近期，习近平主席出席全球发展高层对话会并发表重要讲话，郑重宣布中国将加大对全球发展合作的资源投入，深化全球减贫脱贫合作，提升粮食生产和供应能力。
On the multilateral front, China has continuously deepened international cooperation on food supply. It has supported the WPF in setting up a global humanitarian response depot and hub in China and established and sponsored the China-FAO South-South Cooperation Trust Fund. In cooperation with the FAO and the WFP, China has implemented more than 40 cooperation projects under the Fund. China has established agricultural cooperation zones with other developing countries, carried out exchanges on agricultural know-how with more than 140 countries and regions, and promoted more than 1,000 agricultural technologies in developing countries, driving up the crop yield in the project areas from 30 percent to 60 percent on average and benefiting more than 1.5 million small-scale farmers. Chinese hybrid rice has been planted in dozens of countries and regions in Asia, Africa and the Americas, with an annual planting area of eight million hectares and an average yield per hectare two tons higher than that of fine local varieties. Since the beginning of this year, China has provided more than 15,000 tons of emergency humanitarian food aid to developing countries in need, which has been widely praised by the international community.
中国不断深化国际合作，积极支持世界粮食计划署在华设立全球人道主义应急仓库和枢纽，同联合国粮农组织建立南南合作信托基金并提供资助，在南南合作援助基金项下与联合国粮农组织、世界粮食计划署合作实施40多个南南合作项目。同发展中国家建立农业合作区，同140多个国家和地区开展农业科技交流，向广大发展中国家推广农业技术1000多项，带动项目区农作物平均增产30%—60%，超过150万户小农从中受益。中国杂交水稻已在亚洲、非洲、美洲的数十个国家和地区推广种植，年种植面积达800万公顷，平均每公顷产量比当地优良品种高出2吨左右。今年以来，中国已向有需要的发展中国家提供1.5万多吨紧急人道主义粮援，得到国际社会普遍赞誉。
At the recent G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed China’s eight-point initiative on global food security, contributing China’s wisdom to solving the problem. China’s initiative includes supporting the central role of the United Nations in coordination; not imposing export restriction on humanitarian food purchases by the WFP; facilitating the entry of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian agricultural products and inputs into the international market; releasing the export potential by major food-producing and net-exporting countries, reducing trade and technical barriers, and curbing the use of food as energy resources to ease the food supply tension in the market; emergency measures taken by countries for food trade should be short-term, transparent, targeted and appropriate, and conform to the WTO rules; supporting the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the cooperation on agricultural science and technology innovation among countries, and reduce restrictions on high-tech exchange; reducing food loss and waste; and helping developing countries enhance their capacity for food production, storage and loss reduction in terms of capital, technology, market and others.
在近日举行的二十国集团外长会上，王毅国务委员兼外长提出中方关于国际粮食安全合作的8点倡议，为解决当前世界粮食问题贡献中国智慧。中方倡议包括支持联合国中心协调作用；不对世界粮食计划署开展的人道主义粮食采购实施出口限制措施；为俄罗斯、乌克兰、白俄罗斯的农产品和投入品顺利进入国际市场提供便利；主要粮食生产和净出口国释放自身出口潜力，减少贸易和技术壁垒，控制粮食能源化利用，纾解市场供给紧张局面；各国采取的粮食贸易应急措施应是短期、透明、有针对性和适当的，并符合世贸组织规则；支持国际农业研究磋商组织及各国农业科技创新合作，减少高新科技交流限制；减少粮食损耗；在资金、技术、市场等方面帮助发展中国家提升粮食生产、收储和减损能力。
Together, we can make a difference. The graver the challenges are, the more countries need to put aside their differences and work side by side. In a bid to achieve the SDGs, countries must work with one mind and support each other. Furthermore, there is no time to waste and it is important to increase investment and take swift action now. China sincerely hopes that Russia and Ukraine will agree on a ceasefire and cessation of hostilities as soon as possible and restore peace through dialogue and consultation. It is also hoped that developed countries will offer more support to developing countries. China stands ready to further strengthen cooperation with all parties and make unremitting efforts to make due contributions in safeguarding world food security.
众人拾柴火焰高。挑战越大、困难越多，越需要各国以团结战胜分歧，用合作替代对抗，在实现2030年可持续发展目标的道路上结伴同行、守望相助。我们要加大投入，迅速采取行动，共同应对粮食安全挑战。我们也真诚希望俄乌尽快实现停火止战，通过对话协商谈出和平，真诚期待发达国家为发展中国家提供更多的支持。中方愿继续加强同各方合作，为维护世界粮食安全不懈努力，作出应有贡献。