China has updated a figure that relates to food

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China has updated a figure that relates to food.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang made an annual report on the Work of the Government on March 5th . Li stated several eye-catching goals, for instance, China's expected GDP growth of "about 5%" in 2024, and one of them was: food output of more than 650 million tons.

Last year, China produced 695 million tons of grain, hitting a record high.

For such a populous country like China, food output is extremely vital. Therefore, it is always included in the government’s annual summary. This year's report reiterates that China should always “have control over our own food supply”.

However, how much per capita food output do Chinese people literally have? Is it enough?

Tang Renjian, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, updated a figure to reporters in the Great Hall of the People on the morning of March 5th: so far, China's per capita food output has reached 493 kilograms, showing an increase of 7 kilograms compared to the previous year.

For the first time, China's agricultural sector has revealed the "refreshed" figure. So, how do we take it?

The food security line proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is "400 kilograms per capita". China remains above both the standard and the world average, and is continuously improving. The figure of per capita food output exceeded 450 kilograms in 2012, 460 kilograms in 2013, and 480 kilograms in 2021. The “bigger” the numbers are, the “safer” lives people get. Retrospectively, China's per capita food output was 414 kilograms in 1996 and 209 kilograms in 1949. Therefore, the current per capita shares in China is more than 2.3 times that of 75 years ago.

But what is the reason that the Chinese government set the annual grain output goal of "650 million tons"?

By 2023, China's grain output has steadily been above 650 million tons for nine years. This placed China at the top of the world in terms of grain output. With 9% of the world's cultivated land and 6% of its freshwater resources, China feeds nearly one-fifth of the world's population. According to the white paper Food Security in China released in 2019, China's grain production exceeded 600 million tons in 2012. Comparing 2018 to 1978, the output has an increase of 116%, and nearly 6 times that of 1949(110 million tons).

Besides the adoption of new technologies, China's achievements on increasing grain production also rely on the stability of the total amount of cultivated lands. According to the data revealed in The Third National Land Survey of China in 2021, as of 2019, the national cultivated land had decreased by 7.53 million hectares in 10 years. After government measures, the continuous decline has curbed and the cultivated land has continuously expanded during 2021 and 2022.

China has put forward the goal of “self-sufficiency in grain supply, absolute security of staple grains”.

On March 5th, Tang Renjian, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, conveyed a message to reporters in the Great Hall of the People, "Among all the things in the world, eating takes priority. Such a populous nation as China, food crisis is subversive and intolerable.”

中国青年报社出品

文案：张致远、傅瑞、朱澹清（实习生）

剪辑：贾新阳（实习生）郭扬（实习生）

视觉包装：张岩 李晗

数据来源 ：政府工作报告、《中国的粮食安全》白皮书

图片/视频来源 ：视觉中国、央视等