Price is not the main problem of food security

Introduction: VAR J = ""; if (J! = ") {document Write (" ");} recently, food prices in some parts of the country have risen, making the food security issue once again cause the general concern of the whole society Experts from the Ministry of Agriculture recently expressed their views on how to correctly view the issue of food price rise and how to correctly understand and grasp the issue of food security Suggestions on how to take scientific and effective policy measures to ensure the long-term food security in China are put forward It's the quantity problem, not the price problem, that pays close attention to the food security problem It's caused by the increase of food price However, food security is mainly a matter of quantity, not of price According to the current income level of urban consumers in China, it is fully affordable for food prices to rise According to the income and consumption level of urban residents in 2002, even if the price of grain rises by 50%, the increase of direct grain consumption expenditure is less than 2% of the total expenditure; if the factor of raising the price of animal feed is included, it is only about 4%, which is only half of the annual income growth rate In real life, when food prices rise, people panic about food security Some people cry out that measures should be taken to reduce food prices This is to see the appearance, forget the essence and reverse the cause and effect When the shortage trend appears, the price rise is not only inevitable, but also necessary Stabilizing food prices will not eliminate the shortage, but will cause even greater shortage On the contrary, if the shortage is solved, the price will fall naturally Therefore, to pay attention to food security, we should focus on supply quantity, not supply price Therefore, it is suggested that we should give full play to the role of market mechanism and price leverage When the price of grain rises, as long as it does not exceed the economic capacity of ordinary consumers in cities and towns, we should not intervene, and we should use the price rise to stimulate the increase of supply For a very small number of urban minimum security personnel, we can take measures to improve the standard of minimum security It is a long-term problem, not a short-term problem One of the basic judgments about China's food security is that there is no worry in the short term and it is worrying in the long term In the short term, China's food production reduction will not pose a threat to security The main reasons are as follows: first, China's grain circulation enterprises and farmers still have a considerable amount of grain reserves, and the inventory of state-owned grain enterprises is reduced, while the total grain storage of non-state-owned grain enterprises, including purchase and sale and processing enterprises, is increased, which can make up for the shortage of supply caused by the reduction of grain production in one or two years; second, the export can be turned into import, if the export volume in 2003 is turned into import In volume, we can increase domestic supply by more than 20 billion kg As far as the long-term development trend is concerned, the problem of food security is very serious In 2003, China's total grain production has returned to the level of the early 1990s In terms of demand, with the growth of population, the improvement of income level and the development of national economy, the demand for food and other agricultural products will continue to increase In terms of production, the reduction of cultivated land area, the shortage of water resources and the deterioration of ecological conditions all make the potential of agricultural extension to expand reproduction extremely limited Within agriculture, the potential to expand the area of food by squeezing other crops is small, both in terms of natural and economic feasibility It is the production problem, not the circulation problem Through the implementation of the policy of reserve, reasonable distribution and other circulation links, it plays a certain role in solving the problem of food security But this effect is very limited: first, it can only be short-term No matter how sound and huge the national food reserve system is, it is impossible to solve the long-term food security problem; and historical experience at home and abroad shows that the cost of reserves is very high, and excessive reserves are a serious waste of national financial resources Second, short-term market measures often harm the interests of long-term development In order to achieve the balance of grain supply and demand in the short term, some policies are often against the market rules, such as monopolizing the market, Restricting Farmers' right to sell grain, restricting the market access of non-state-owned business departments, etc Due to the influence of the long-term planned economy concept, some departments tend to adopt the old approach when they encounter the tension between the supply and demand of food, trying to find a way out of the market regulation These measures will suppress farmers' enthusiasm for grain production, reduce the efficiency of market circulation, and ultimately lead to damage to long-term security It's the food problem, not the grain problem In real life, "grain" in food security is the concept of big grain, it's the concept of food, not just grain Grain safety is the foundation of food safety, but in recent years, the food consumption of urban and rural households is increasingly diversified, and the proportion of grain has been greatly reduced In recent years, one of the reasons for the decline of grain output is the structural adjustment, which causes the structural change of food supply The total food supply does not necessarily change While the grain output decreases due to the structural adjustment, the production of other foods increases As far as the demand for rations is concerned, the annual consumption of rations by urban and rural residents is less than 250 billion kg, of which less than 50 billion kg by urban residents The pressure of increasing food demand mainly comes from the demand of livestock products, aquatic products and processing industry Therefore, we should broaden our vision to solve the long-term food security problem, and not only focus on grain It's the goal of the government, not the goal of farmers Food security is the goal of a country's agricultural policy For every farmer, the most concern is how to improve their income This is the law of social economy Generally speaking, the vast majority of farmers do not want to grow food voluntarily, preferring to reduce their income By means of law or administrative compulsion, it can only be effective in a very limited scope We can stipulate by law what we can't do on the cultivated land, for example, we can't build houses or dig fish ponds, but we can't stipulate by law that farmers must grow food on the cultivated land or what proportion of food they must grow Such a regulation is a retrogression to the planned economy and cannot be supervised In addition, even if farmers are willing to increase food production, they are also restricted by technology, investment, market services and other aspects, and need the government to provide corresponding public services Source: China Rural Research Network