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China has put a lot of effort into boosting food security by
improving grain production and quality over the past five years, which
has helped ensure people's daily necessities amid the COVID-19 epidemic. Since 2017, an investment of 81.5 billion yuan ($12.6 billion) has
been channeled to various State-level projects for food security
supervision, grain quality improvement and services for grain marketing
and sales, according to a statement on Tuesday by the National Food and
Strategic Reserves Administration. "Some local governments and companies have also contributed their
wisdom to speed up the improvement of food security," Qian Yi, director
of the administration's planning and construction department, said at a
news conference on Tuesday in Beijing. Funan county in Anhui province has developed a new way of growing
wheat that since 2018 that has given farmers means to manage their crops
from the production stage to sales. As a result, about 20,000 hectares
are being used in the production of high-quality wheat. "In 2020, Funan also started its flour production line, which will be
able to manufacture 300,000 metric tons of flour a year when finished.
It's an important step to build an industrial chain and is of great help
to consolidate the poverty alleviation work in the countryside," he
said. He added that Funan's production model and experience were promoted
in 64 former poverty-stricken counties nationwide last year, increasing
high-quality grain by about 70,000 metric tons and benefiting more than
800,000 households. With grain production and quality steadily rising, the grain market operations are also stable. Through last year until Jan 5 of this year, about 110 million tons of
grains for the autumn season such as corn and beans were purchased by
companies, a year-on-year increase of 5 million tons, according to the
administration. Grains stocks are also at a relatively high level, with some main
provisions such as wheat and rice enough for one year of consumption,
said the administration. Grain and oil products in big and medium-sized
cities can secure people's consumption for more than 20 days. Some imported grains are supplementary to the domestic market.
Figures from the General Administrative Customs show that from January
to November last year, there were 7.49 million tons of wheat and 2.23
million tons of rice imported. The administration said that it will strengthen efforts to improve
food security by using technology and enhancing people's consciousness
of cherishing food. "We now have state-of-the-art technology for food reserves, and we
are promoting the reduction of losses during processing through
bio-based materials and ecological technologies," Fang Jin, the
administration's office director, said at the news conference. He said that the promotion of saving food and cherishing grains is also important. "We hope that people can get the idea in their minds that it's an
honor to treasure food, while wasting food is shameful," he said.
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