Review and outlook of food security and nutrition in china

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Review and Outlook of Food Security and Nutrition in
China
Prof. CHEN Mengshan, Chair of State Food and Nutrition Consultant Committee (SFNCC),
former Secretary of the Leading Party Group of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
(CAAS)
Ms. ZHAI Lin, Department of International Cooperation, CAAS
Mr. QIN Lang, Strategic Planning Office, CAAS
29 Nov 2018

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The Chinese government attaches great importance to agricultural
development and food security. It has always taken the provision of
enough food for its over one billion people as a top priority for
governance and national stability and adhered to the principle of
basic self-sufficiency in agricultural products such as grain. The
fundamental position of agriculture has been constantly
strengthened. Agricultural and rural development has scored
remarkable achievements since the 1980s, with significantly
enhanced comprehensive productivity, increasingly sufficient food
supply and prominent improvement in people’s health. Socialism
with Chinese characteristics has entered into a new era, with the
principal contradiction facing the Chinese society evolved to one
between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's
ever-growing needs for a better life. At this new point of time, it is
both crucial and relevant to comprehend the features of food and
nutrition development, address the contradiction between
unbalanced and inadequate development and people’s ever-growing
needs for nutrition and health, and carry out international
exchanges and cooperation in a deep-going and wide-ranging
manner.
I． Achievements of food security and nutrition in China
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on poverty and
hunger reduction met ahead of schedule. Poverty and hunger
are common challenges for the international community. Over the
past 40 years, the Chinese government launched massive poverty
alleviation and development campaigns with focus on feeding and
cladding the rural poor. From 1978 to 2017, the number of rural

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poor people fell by 740 million nationwide, with close to 19 million
people lifted out of poverty on average per annum; the rural head
count ratio (HCR) declined by 94.4 percentage points, 2.4
percentage points on average per annum. China's current HCR is far
lower than the world’s average. China made tremendous
contributions to global poverty and hunger reduction and met
relevant MDGs ahead of schedule. In the world, 70% of people lifted
out of poverty and 2/3 of people got rid of hunger came from China.
China scored equally prominent achievements in hunger reduction.
From 1990 to 2017, the number of undernourished people dropped
by 15.2 percentage points in China; the decline of the share and
number of hungry people in China was 50% higher than the MDGs
and the goals set by the World Food Summit. In fact, since 1990, the
number of people recovered from malnutrition in China accounted
for 75% of that of the world.
Agricultural product supply capability constantly
strengthened. The substantial reduction in the number of hungry
people cannot be realized without China’s ever-strengthening grain
supply capability. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of
China, in particular the reform and opening-up, China has made
great progress in food production, which has not only ensured
enough food for 1.3 billion people, but also made huge contributions
to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and
guaranteeing national modernization. China managed to feed nearly
20% of the world’s population with less than 10% of the world’s
farmland. In 1983-2017, the growth of China’s grain output was
faster than that of population, in particular, after 2004, China

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managed to grow its grain output for 13 consecutive years. China’s
grain output was only 113.15 million tons in 1949, and grew to
304.765 million tons in 1978 and rose further to a historic high of
617.9 million tons in 2017.
In the meantime, agricultural production underwent restructuring.
With grain output increasing, the production of high value crops and
livestock products also grew rapidly. For example, meat production
increased from 9.43 million tons in 1978 to 86.54 million tons in
2017, with an average annual growth of 5.8%; the output of fruits,
vegetables, poultry eggs and aquatic products grew by 11.3%, 6.0%,
7.4% and 8.4% respectively. The output of agricultural products,
particularly fruits, vegetables and aquatic products, grew thanks to
the input of modern means of production.
Residents’ food consumption upgraded and nutrition
improved. Thanks to rapid economic development, the income of
urban and rural residents in China surged. The Engel coefficient of
urban and rural residents fell from 57.7% and 67.7% in 1978 to 28.6%
and 31.2% in2017; people are demanding for not only enough but
also better, more nutritious and more tailor-made food.
The dietary pattern of Chinese residents is gradually evolving from
being cereal dominant to a more protein-rich and diversified one.
The consumption of rice, flour and other refined grains is declining
and the consumption of animal products is rising. Per capita grain
consumption dropped from 235 kg in 1983 to 130.1 kg in 2017.
Meanwhile, the consumption of fruits, vegetable oil, meat, poultry
and aquatic products increased dramatically.

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In 2012, the per capita daily calorie intake of Chinese residents was
2,172 kcal, protein intake was 65 grams, fat intake was 80 grams,
and carbohydrate intake is 301 grams. The supply of the three
macronutrients was sufficient and energy needs were met. Total
protein intake has increased steadily and the intake of quality
protein grew.
The wasting rate of children under age 5 in China dropped from 19.1%
in 1990 to 3.6% in 2010; the stunting rate of children under age 5
decreased from 33.4% in 1990 to 9.9% in 2010, down by 15.5 and
23.5 percentage points respectively. The prevalence of
micronutrient deficiencies in children also fell. The prevalence of
anemia in children under age 5 continued to drop from 19.3% in
2005 to 12.6% in 2010.
II． Experience of food security and nutrition development in
China
China formulated the food security strategy and identified
food security as the top priority for governance and
stability. Food security has always held a strategic position in
China. The government has always regarded the issue of food as
overarching and strategic that bears on the national economy and
people's livelihood. A range of important documents were issued to
emphasize the importance of food as both an economic and a
political issue. Food security is the anchor of national development
and the ballast stone of social stability. In November 2008, the
Medium- and Long-Term Plan for National Food Security 2008-
2020 was released, which identified the foremost goal of

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guaranteeing national food security. Since 2014, important
documents were formulated every year to stress advancing
agricultural modernization and keeping national food security as
the primary task. In 2012, President Xi Jinping made a profound
interpretation of the road to food security with Chinese
characteristics based on the situations of the world, China and
Chinese agriculture. He proposed the new strategy for national food
security, i.e. China’s food security shall be ensured by relying on
domestic production, moderate import and the support of science
and technology. China’s food security has laid an important
foundation for the country's long-term stability and made crucial
contributions to world food security.
Effective supply of agricultural products guaranteed
through breakthroughs in agricultural science and
technology. China has achieved great progress and innovations in
science and technology related to agriculture and the rural sector,
and the overall strength of science and technology has been
constantly improved. In 2017, the progress of science and
technology contributed to 57.5% of China's agricultural
development, and China's main crop varieties have basically
realized full coverage. Independently selected and bred varieties
cover 95% of the total agricultural area; the production capability of
core germplasm of livestock, poultry and aquatic products kept
improving; and breakthroughs were made in super rice, GM BT
cotton, vaccines for avian influenza, etc. The comprehensive
mechanization level of crops, involving ploughing, sowing and
harvesting reached 67%. Breakthroughs in agricultural science and

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technology are instrumental in guaranteeing national food security,
effective supply of important agricultural products and farmers’
income growth.
Under constraints of farmland and fresh water, science and
technology are making bigger contributions to the improvement of
grain yield. In terms of varieties, China's protoplast culture
technology for rice, wheat and corn is internationally advanced, and
China is leading the world in super rice research and new variety
breeding. The breeding and extension of a large number of high-
yield, super high-yield, highly resistant and widely applicable new
grain varieties such as super rice, hybrid wheat and hybrid corn has
made great contributions to the improvement of grain yield in China.
In terms of technologies, China launched and extended a series of
advanced and applicable technologies for stabilizing and increasing
grain output, preventing and reducing agricultural disasters,
integrating agricultural machinery and agronomy and the storage,
transportation and fresh-keeping of agricultural products; These
technologies have effectively transformed traditional ways of
production, storage and transportation of agricultural products and
enhanced resource use efficiency. In terms of models of
technology transfer, programs for high-yield grain, cotton, oil
and sugar were launched; a number of agricultural science and
technology parks, science and technology innovation and integrated
demonstration bases were established; new circular rice-fish, rice-
crab and rice-shrimp farming models were developed and new
progress was made in science and technology development along
the whole industrial chain.

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All-round and deepened rural reform is a source of
inexhaustible power for agricultural and rural
development. China has always taken proper solutions to issues
related to agriculture as the top priority. Historic achievements and
transformations have been realized through all-round and deepened
rural reform, the establishment and improvement of the
fundamental management system in rural areas, land right
identification, registration and certification, the separation of rights
of ownership, contract and management of rural land, the reform of
rural management system and agricultural products distribution
system, the supply-side structural reform in agriculture, and the
implementation of the rural vitalization strategy.
Rural reform with the family contract responsibility system as the
hallmark unveiled China's reform. The establishment of the dual
management structure featured by the combination of unified and
independent management on the basis of family contract has greatly
mobilized millions of farmers to engage in production and
emancipated rural productivity, providing solid institutional
guarantee for agriculture and rural development. Vigorous efforts
were made to advance market-oriented reform: centralized and
mandated purchase schemes were abolished so as to invigorate
agricultural distribution and strengthen farmers’ autonomy in
decision-making. Main functional zones for agricultural production
were delineated to further optimize the layout of agricultural
production and enable growing advantages enjoyed by the main
producing areas. While greatly emancipating agricultural
productivity, the family contract responsibility system is challenged

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by the small-scale operation of individual households, low returns
of agriculture and limited access to big markets. In this respect, the
government deepened the land reform to separate three rights,
namely stabilizing the rights of ownership and contract and
invigorating the right of management. With the rapid development
of moderately scaled agricultural production, the massive
emergence of various kinds of new players of agricultural
production, operation and service, and the integration of the
primary, secondary and tertiary industries, the ways of agricultural
production have undergone profound changes, and agricultural
production has been restructured to meet people’s changing food
demand, and agriculture is increasingly shouldering multiple
functions.
Together with rural reform, various pro-agriculture policies were
issued to further mobilize farmers. In addition to rescinding
agricultural tax, the government has strengthened support for
agriculture by issuing a range of pro-agriculture policies, such as the
minimum purchase price for grains, the temporary collection and
storage scheme for grains, and grain production subsidies, such as
direct subsidies for grain growers, subsidies for the use of improved
varieties, subsidies for the purchase of farm machineries and
comprehensive subsides for agricultural inputs. These policies have
greatly boosted grain production.
Science-based and effective food and nutrition policies are
strong guarantee for a robust food sector and people's
health. The Outline for the Reform and Development of China’s
Food Structure for the 1990s issued by the government in 1993

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provided good guidance for the development of food related sectors
in China, building enabling macro environment for food
development, strengthening comprehensive food production
capacity and improving residents’ food consumption and nutrition.
Subsequently, the government issued the China Food and Nutrition
Development Outline 2001-2010 and 2014-2020 given the new
developments and features in food and nutrition in China. These
important plans aim at guaranteeing effective food supply,
optimizing food structure and improving residents’ nutrition, and
serve as new blueprints and visions for food and nutrition
development. In recent years, the government also released the
Outline of the Healthy China 2030 Plan, the National Nutrition Plan
(2017-2030) and other documents to promote the improvement of
national nutritional status. In preparing these important documents,
the National Food and Nutrition Advisory Committee played a
major role. The Committee is a consultative and advisory body
established in 1993 composed of experts in the fields of agriculture,
food, nutrition, health, economy, trade, etc. It provides advice and
guidance for decision-making by the central government and
relevant ministries on major issues of national food and nutrition.
In addition, the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents was
revised in 1997, 2007 and 2016 respectively and put forward food
and nutrient intake reference indicators suitable for different
genders and age groups in China, providing effective guidance for
residents' healthy diet.
China developed plans for the development of specific food sectors
in an effort to optimize residents’ dietary structure and improve

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people’ health. The most representative plans are the Soybean
Action Plan, Dairy Sector Rejuvenation Plan and the Potatoes as
Staple Food Plan. These action plans involve all links in the food
value chain, ranging from production, processing to sales. The
development of competitive food sector helps to meet and guide
people’s demand for nutritious diets.
Poverty alleviation policy and social security focus on
improving food security and nutrition of the most
vulnerable people. There is an urban-rural nutritional gap in
China. People suffering from malnutrition are mainly concentrated
in poor rural areas. Nutritional improvement for focus areas and
groups and poverty alleviation policies and social security measures
integrate and mutually reinforce. Targeted poverty alleviation
policies implemented in recent years could effectively identify poor
people and the causes for being poor. Investment in poverty
alleviation for those households documented and recorded as poor
could help remove two concerns and ensure three guarantees. One
concern is over food insecurity. Another important policy is to
advance the Nutrition Improvement Program for Students
Receiving Compulsory Education in Rural Areas (Nutrition
Improvement Program for short). Launched in 2011, the Program
received 159.1 billion yuan of central budget for implementation.
Altogether 1,590 counties in 29 provinces of China implemented the
Nutrition Improvement Program. To be specific, 699 counties
launched national pilots and 891 counties rolled out local pilots,
covering 134,000 schools and benefiting over 36 million students.
Thanks to the scientific planning and overall arrangement, the

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Nutrition Improvement Program enables rural poor students to
have access to enough and nutritious food. Thanks to the concerted
efforts of governments at all levels, this major program for public
wellbeing has generated significant outcomes.
III. Challenges for food and nutrition development
The development of China's agriculture and food production is
evolving towards meeting nutritional and health demands of urban
and rural residents. This transformation is faced with many
challenges and contradictions which are mainly reflected as three
imbalances and two mismatches.
The three imbalances are as follows:
First, the imbalance between food production and supply
and consumption demand.
The supply of agricultural products in China has realized the historic
transition from chronic shortage to basically balanced aggregate,
however the imbalance between food production structure and
residents’ consumption is getting more prominent. Grain output has
been growing for 13 consecutive years. The internal structure is
unbalanced with high output, import and stock. Wheat production
is slightly greater than demand, but quality wheat supply is
insufficient, import pressure continues to increase; rice production
is greater than demand, but quality rice is still being imported; corn
production is greater than demand, there is periodical surplus;
soybean demand continues to expand, supply and demand gap is
widening; the consumption demand for miscellaneous grains and
beans is growing rapidly, but there is no effective supply of products

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of high quality and famous brand and with good markets.
Second, the imbalance in the structure of food
consumption and nutrient intake.
China’s caloric supply is excessive if judged from nutrients provided
by food consumption and nutritional needs of residents, however,
quality protein, especially vitamins and minerals, is obviously in
short supply. Monitoring data of residents' nutrition and health
status shows that the per capita availability of carbohydrates,
protein and fat for Chinese residents is sufficient, but the gap
between the actual intake and recommended level for
micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals (iron, zinc, calcium,
etc.) remains big. The dietary calcium intake of over 90% of the
population is below the recommended level; the dietary zinc intake
of over 50% of the population is below the recommended level; and
the dietary vitamin C intake of over 70% of the population is below
the recommend level.
Third, urban-rural imbalance in the development of
nutritional status.
Malnutrition is prevalent in poor regions, in particular, those
remote areas, given the lack of nutritious food and the inadequacy
of protein, minerals and vitamins. Urban residents are suffering
from chronic diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, high
blood sugar, high blood fat, diabetes and gout caused by dietary
imbalance or excessive nutrition. The number of patients of various
kinds of chronic illnesses has exceeded 400 million. At present, the
prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia

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among Chinese adults is 25.2%,9.7% and 4.9% respectively. Chronic
nutritional illnesses represented by the three are not only posing
serious threats to the health of urban residents, but also adding tens
of billions of RMB of medical expenses. It is therefore a daunting
task to adjust and optimize dietary structure to cope with the high
prevalence of chronic illnesses.
The two mismatches are as follows:
First, the mismatch between growing demand for food and
ecological and environment constraints.
Due to the long-term pursuit of extensive agriculture focusing on
output growth, China's agriculture and food production is facing
increasingly intensified resource constraints and environmental
challenges.
Second, the mismatch between the technology system for
production and processing and nutrition and health goals.
There is an obvious mismatch between nutritional agricultural
product varieties, farming techniques of nutrition fortification and
processing and cooking techniques for nutrition maintenance, and
the increasingly robust consumption demand for more tailor-made
and functional products.
IV. New visions for food security and nutrition development in
China
The development of food security and nutrition in China will feature
new concept, choices and visions, thus meeting people’s new and
growing demand for food nutrition and health.

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1. New concept of food, nutrition and health
We need to approach food in a broader sense and guarantee food
supply with both domestic and foreign resources and markets in
mind. We should on the one hand develop rich domestic food
varieties, germplasm resources of animals, plants and
microorganisms, as well as marine and forest foods and on the other
hand open wider to the outside world and import more quality and
diversified food products from other countries, driving agricultural
development of the exporting countries. We need to approach
nutrition in a broader sense. Efforts should be made to conduct
scientific assessment that emphasizes food’s nutritional function,
effectively remove factors leading to chronic illnesses, develop
nutritional and functional food and realize the balance and
coordination among people's pursuit for health, nutritious food
production and appropriate dietary consumption. We need to follow
the broad concept of health and advocate green agricultural
production, residents’ nutritious food consumption, healthy food
production and consumption, and residents’ physical and mental
wellbeing. We will vigorously promote the concept of healthy diet
and appropriate and balanced food intake. The scope of nutrition
education should be expanded from students, women and the
elderly to all people. It is easier to develop a habit among students,
and a convergence and demonstration effects could be easily
generated. Incorporating food and nutrition knowledge into
curriculum of primary and middle schools and launching Small
Hands and Big Hands nutrition education campaigns could help to
influence and lead the whole society to healthy diet. It is necessary

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to promote nutrition knowledge through various channels or
platforms, such as the Internet, WeChat public accounts and
traditional TV, newspapers and journals, to enhance residents’
awareness of balanced diets and nutrition consumption, thus
realizing coordinated development of residents’ health, efficient
resource use and the protection of ecology and environment.
2. New choice of food security and nutrition guarantee
Being a populous country, China always needs to ensure basic self-
sufficiency and keep the rice bowl firmly in our own hands and fill
the rice bowl with our own grain. Full implementation of the new
strategy of food security requests approaching food from a broad
perspective so as to ensure the effective supply of agricultural
products and the accelerated integration of the primary, secondary
and tertiary industries. Promoting nutrition-oriented sustainable
agricultural production requests a two-pronged approach: first,
promoting innovation in agricultural science and technology and
developing comprehensive nutrition indicators for agricultural
products; second, strengthening government supervision and
guidance and establishing comprehensive nutrition standards for
agricultural products for nutrition-oriented transformation in
agriculture and food production in China. Efforts should be made to
incorporate nutrition indicators into the system of indicators for
agricultural development evaluation and take the bearing capacity
of resources and environment into comprehensive consideration.
We need to establish a value chain of safer and more nutritious food
and accelerate the development of systems to guarantee national
food security and the quality and safety of agricultural products.

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Basic nutrition supply for undernourished people in rural areas and
disadvantaged groups such as women, children and the elderly
should be ensured. Policies for regular monitoring of food nutrition
should be developed to implement nutrition interventions in key
regions and groups of people. For key regions, support and
development measures should be combined and introduced for poor
areas to raise food consumption by local residents and realize basic
guarantee and gradual improvements of food and nutrition of the
poor. For regions densely populated by migrants and newly
urbanized areas, efforts should be made to improve the diet of
migrant workers, provide dietary guidance for people away from
home and residents in newly urbanized areas, and advocate healthy
way of life and appropriate dietary pattern. For key groups, efforts
should be made to monitor nutritional status of the aged, provide
science-based guidance on nutrition replenishment and balanced
diets for the aged and study and develop food products that meet
their demand for health, such as nutrition fortified food and low-salt
and low-fat food; efforts should be focused on reducing the wasting
rate and the incidence of iron deficiency anemia among rural
children and adolescents, guarantee nutrition for rural left-behind
children, and curb the trend of overweight and obesity among urban
children and adolescents; efforts should be made to promote
balanced nutrition of the pregnant and maternal women and
strengthen supervision on the quality of breast-milk substitutes and
infant and baby food. We should strengthen international
cooperation and actively participate in global and regional food
security development and governance.

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3. New vision of a new food and nutrition development
outline
The current China Food and Nutrition Development Outline 2014-
2020 is playing a crucial role in guaranteeing effective food supply,
optimizing food structure and improving residents’ nutrition. The
development and implementation of a new food and nutrition
outline to guide China’s food and nutrition development in the next
15 years will help to address many problems related to food,
nutrition and health in a coordinated manner and constitute an
important pillar and initiative to implement the Healthy China
strategy and an effective means to advance rural vitalization and
guarantee safe food supply in China. The new outline will follow the
guidance of the Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese
characteristics for a new era, coordinate will the goals and tasks of
the Outline of the Healthy China Plan and the National Nutrition
Plan, promote coordinated development among food consumption,
nutrition supply, production and trade, and further enhance
people's living standard and health status. Efforts should be made
to advance food and nutrition transformation and development in
China according to law and study and develop nutritious food
guidelines for special groups and nutritional logos for the catering
sector. A mechanism for coordinated development of the medical
care system and health guarantee system shall be established. We
should study and develop a new system of food nutrition and health
standards for both nutrition improvement of the general public and
tailor-made and targeted services for special groups and shift from
focusing on key groups to providing nutrition guidance for all.

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