38.Researcher China entering 'era of agricultural product deficits' - People's Daily Online

Researcher China entering 'era of agricultural product deficits' - People's Daily Online

China is entering an "era of agricultural product deficits," warned Zhang Xiaoshan, director of the Rural Development Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), at an industrial forum.

According to Zhang's calculation, China's net import of grain was 42.65 million tons in 2010, while domestic grain output was 530 million tons.

"The net import ration of domestic consumption (net import plus domestic production) was 7.4 percent, higher than the requirement of the grain white book," Zhang said.

The Chinese government issued a white book for the problem of grain consumption and production in October 1996, requiring that net grain imports should account for less than 5 percent of domestic grain consumption.

China recently unexpectedly started the imports of corn. According to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the reason was that corn prices in the international market are relatively lower.

Zhang estimates that China needs at least 1.4 million square kilometers of farmland to satisfy its demand for grain products, and 13 percent of which relies on foreign countries.

To safeguard grain supply, the Chinese government has always emphasized that the nation's farmland cannot be lower than 1.2 million square kilometers.

By Qi Shuwen, People's Daily Online