How does China manage to feed its population to a high degree on 800 square meters of agricultural land per inhabitant? In comparison, Germany has 1,500 square meters and is the world's second largest agricultural importer after the USA. The USA has 5,400 square meters of agricultural land per capita, but also has a strong agricultural foreign trade both on the import and export side.
A study by IOWA University examined the Chinese food industry for important characteristics and found the following.
- China employs a large number of workers in order to be able to use the scarce available agricultural land as many times a year as possible. Under the most favorable conditions, there are 5 rice harvests per year.
- Until 5 years ago, 50% of pigs were produced in backyard farms using waste from harvests, households and restaurants. Workers were employed to collect and process the waste.
- The available land was traditionally used intensively with manual labor up to the higher altitudes in terraced farming. In more recent times, even dry areas were made available for agriculture with irrigation. Entire rivers were diverted. Lakes have been pumped dry.
- The shortage of protein from animal sources has led to 100% utilization of animal carcasses. Traditional processing and eating habits contribute to this loss minimization.
- In rural regions, a vegetarian diet is still preferred according to old customs.
With increasing economic development, there has been a growing rural exodus. The consequences are manifold. There is a shortage of labor in the countryside. The use of machinery is not possible or profitable on many fields. Difficult areas are increasingly falling fallow or are being farmed less intensively. Rural migrants are taking up increasing amounts of living space and road construction in the outskirts of already densely populated areas. Every year, 3 to 4 % of valuable arable land is lost. At the same time, the demand for food is growing, with a richer diet and an increasing proportion of highly processed foods.
The import of agricultural commodities such as soy, corn and rice has developed correspondingly fast. In this way, China imports staple foods from an area of 30 million hectares, twice the size of Germany's agricultural land.
The question for the future is whether China will be able to maintain its current policy of self-sufficiency in food of animal origin on the basis of its own and imported animal feed, whether it will create value domestically or whether it will have to resort to direct imports of more highly processed products.
In the case of the supply of dairy products, the question has largely been decided. The original rapid upswing in the Chinese dairy industry in the early 2000s collapsed abruptly with the melamine scandal in 2006. People do not trust their own processing industry and the image of their own production has been massively damaged. Despite this, the demand for dairy products has continued unabated and is being met by increasing imports from New Zealand, Australia and the USA.
Domestic meat production is expensive, has limited productivity and is not very environmentally friendly. Imported soybean meal is $100 per ton and corn is $120 per ton higher than in the USA. The feed costs for a pig alone are 40% higher in China than in the USA. The disease pressure is enormous and results from the coexistence of backyard farms, which have fallen below 30%, and the newly built pig farming centers, which often lack knowledge of hygiene and preventive and curative measures. Pig prices below the equivalent of €2.5 per kg do not cover the full Chinese costs with low wages and construction costs.
The demands of a growing middle and upper class for Western eating habits are forcing China to adopt a series of interim solutions. Initially, self-sufficiency in soybeans was abandoned at the beginning of 2003: China has since become the world's largest importer of soybeans, accounting for two-thirds of trade. The land that became available was used for increased maize cultivation. With the current year 2013/14, it is clear that the reserves are also exhausted here and more maize will have to be imported.
A temporary solution is also the import of pork parts that are considered inferior or no longer suitable for the food chain according to Western values. Pig heads, ears, paws, curly tails etc. are considered a delicacy in China. Imports already exceed the million ton mark.
The future challenge: increasing agricultural productivity.
3 examples:
a) Maize cultivation is often still done by hand hoeing and weeding to control weeds. GMO varieties and the use of PS could increase yields by 30 % and solve the labor problem
b) Targeted training in the use of preventive health products in animal husbandry, performance-oriented feeding and husbandry
c) Improving labour productivity through mechanization and automation.
In any case, food waste is not an issue in China, but the underutilization of available resources is.
