Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
regional income disparity impacts, of WTO accession. It was concluded
that although Chna's WTO accesson rases the real ncome and welfare
of rural and urban households in all regions, regional income disparity and
rural-urban inequality will worsen as the richer eastern region receives
most of the welfare gans of accesson. Ths chapter focuses on the food
securty ssue.
China's achievements in food security and food self sufficiency
policies
China's achievements in food security
Chna has made great progress n provdng food securty for ts people
since the economic reforms began in 1978. According to FAO statistics, the
average per capta daly food consumpton n Chna was only 2017 calores
in 1979, well below the world average of 2500 and below the average of
2200 for other developing countries at that time. By 2001, it had increased
by about 47 per cent to 2963 calories—above the world average of 2800.
Nutrtonal ntake and food qualty have also mproved. Chna had made
the greatest achevement n reducng undernourshment n both absolute
and relative terms. During the period from 1990-92 to 1998-2000, China
reduced the number of undernourished people by 70 million, or by 7
percentage points (FAO 2002).
Gran producton and household ncomes have ncreased as well. Total
and per capta gran producton ncreased at annual rates of 1.9 and 0.7 per
cent, respectively, from 1978 to 2002. Per capita incomes of rural and urban
households increased by 7.4 and 6.3 per cent per annum, respectively, over
the same period (Table 7.1). The food self-sufficiency target has also been
well maintained. In 2001, both total grain and total food self-sufficiency
rates were above 95 per cent (Table 7.2).
These achevements were brought about by the agrcultural economc
reforms, especially the rural household responsibility system and market
reform for producton factors and agrcultural commodtes (Ln 1997).
Between 1979 and 1984, when the household responsibility system began,
the growth in agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) jumped to 5.1