China's fight against hunger has been a great success, said
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agricultural
Organization of the United Nations, on Thursday at the ongoing 27th
FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific.
"We are encouraged by the fact that China is feeding one-quarter
of world's population with only 7 percent of the world's arable
land," he told reporters.
Diouf attributes China's success to the priority the Chinese
government gives to agriculture and its huge investment in the
sector.
Irrigation is a major focus within the sector. So far, 50
percent of its arable land has been equipped with irrigation
facilities. The nation's goal is to increase irrigated arable land
by 1 percent each year.
In addition, China has adopted policies prohibiting
deforestation along the banks of major rivers, which helps to
reduce erosion, silt accumulation and flood risks.
Diouf pointed out that China's agricultural sector still faces
some problems. The income disparity between rural and urban areas,
and between the coastal and inland areas, has led to a migration of
the rural population to the country's urban and coastal areas.
With its high GDP growth, food demand will increase, especially
in high-quality foods, said Diouf. The country will also face the
consequences of becoming a member of the WTO and the effects of the
international market.
Diouf also noted China's grain output decrease, reduction in
reserves and increase in demand in the past several years, saying
that climate changes have contributed to the output decrease.
He also said that the Chinese government is naturally well aware
of the problems, and is developing policies to address them.
In the past 20 years, China has adopted a series of reform
measures to improve agricultural productivity.
Currently, the total supply of major agricultural products has
shifted from chronic shortage to a general balance against total
demand, with some surplus in good harvest years. The number of
undernourished people plummeted from 250 million in 1978 to 29
million in 2003.
(People's Daily May 21, 2004)