China has announced it will increase funding for agricultural science and technology in a bid to maintain food security and overcome out-dated production practices.
The ‘Policy Document no. 1’ was released last week by China’s State Council – the first major policy announcement of the new year – and stated “accelerating agricultural scientific and technological innovation” was its central theme, with a particular focus on breeding and seed production.
Increased farm subsidies are also a core part of the new policy, focusing these on the more productive regions, large-scale producers and cooperatives, a report from the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development outlined (ICTSD).
Alongside farm subsidies, the policy pledges to expand support for genetically modified organisms (GMO), a new move which the government acknowledges may be controversial, as well as reforms of land use agreements.
The new policy will focus primarily on grain production, but will also affect China’s horticultural sector. Chen Mengshan, a spokesman from the Ministry of Agriculture, noted that more than 90 per cent of the country’s ‘high end’ vegetables, flowers and plants are imported.
Self-sufficiency in grain production is one of the key goals for China’s agricultural policy-makers, who have stated that shortfalls in these products and others will be made up through international trade.
That trade has been growing significantly in the last few years; China’s agricultural trade deficit grew 47 per cent in 2011 to US$34bn, according to recent figures from the Ministry of Agriculture.
