Chinese 5-year plan 2016 to 2020: more agricultural imports planned
The absolute priority of the Chinese agricultural self-sufficiency with food is unsustainable for some years been to ensure. It began years 12 ago with less than 3 million tonnes, which is estimated in 2015 to 80 million tonnes with imports of soybeans. The self-sufficiency rate has fallen to less than 20%. Cereal imports have increased in the last 7 years from 2.5 to 20 million tons.
Imports of milk powder have increased almost tenfold in the last 10 years. Skimmed-milk powder is the self-sufficiency rate below 15%. The pork decrease the domestic supply in the direction of 95% with fast-growing trend.
The 13th five-year plan 2016-2020 foresees to increase China's imports of grain and oilseeds, rather than to expand domestic production. This decision represents a basic change in China's agricultural policy. As a result of population growth and the ongoing urbanization process, it is expected that the demand will increase for grain and oilseeds in China by 600 million tons in 2014 to 700 million in the year 2020. At this time, a difference of 100 million tonnes between domestic demand and production will be the expectations according to which must be covered by imports.
Nevertheless, China plans for the cereals, which are intended for direct human consumption - mainly rice and wheat - are to remain still self-sufficient, so that imports are focusing mainly on animal feed grain. However, imports are also continue increasing in the finishing sector.
The decision involves the departure of the little labor efficient small peasants to agro-industrial farms. This is partly out of necessity because the young population increasingly migrated and visible is that the old people only even temporarily will continue farming.
The need for food imports is also of low agricultural land of 800 square meters per capita. Intensive use of multiple reaches the limits of water availability, environmental and landscape protection.
In terms of the number of workers in agriculture based on modern country economic structure that comes out with a small proportion of the working population. However, the mechanization of the Terassenlandwirtschaft in the mountain areas and multiple rice is problematic in a year.
