Li Gucheng: Holding the "oil bottle" firmly and steadily for seizing the initiative of national grain and oil security

2023-04-26

While ensuring food security, it is necessary to ensure the stable and secure supply of other important agricultural products, especially by promoting soybean and oilseed production. How can China deal with the uncertainty of the international environment and hold the initiative for national grain and oil security? Recently, Li Gucheng, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Huazhong Agricultural University, talked on the topic in an interview with China Daily.

 

Li stated that in the face of a global century-old change, the issue of grain and oil security has become more urgent and important. To build a strong agricultural country, China must hold the "oil bottle" more firmly and steadily, continuously expand the planting area, increase yield, enhance productivity, improve the resilience of the industrial chain, and ensure a stable supply of grain and oil.

 

"The shortcomings of the international supply chain and the relatively low self-sufficiency rate directly pose a significant challenge to China's growing demand for edible vegetable oil and animal feed," said Li.

 

China Daily: How can we strengthen scientific and technological strategic support and empower the development of the oilseed industry?

 

Li: The fundamental way to hold the "oil bottle" more firmly and steadily is through science and technology. Currently, the development of agricultural machinery and seed technology is crucial for the oilseed industry, and we need to focus on promoting new breakthroughs in key core technologies in key areas.

 

First, we need to accelerate the cultivation of new varieties such as high-yield and high-oil soybeans, short-growth-period rapeseed, and salt-alkali-tolerant crops. Also, we need to accelerate the industrialization of corn and soybean breeding and orderly expand the pilot range. In addition, we need to focus on supporting the technology research and development of specialized machinery for corn and soybean belt composite planting and low-loss rate oilseed harvesting machinery.

 

China Daily: China's total arable land is small, the overall quality is not high, and the reserve resources are insufficient. In this context, how can we ensure the supply of oilseed crops such as soybeans?

 

Li: To ensure the supply of oilseed crops such as soybeans, we need to vigorously promote corn and soybean belt composite planting and steadily develop soybean planting on saline-alkali land.

 

First, we need to promote corn and soybean belt composite planting solidly, use intercropping to achieve "no reduction in corn yield, and an additional harvest of one season of beans," and increase soybean yield while ensuring stable corn yield.

 

Second, we need to support grain-legume rotation in Northeast China and the Huang-Huai-Hai region, give full play to the role of soybean nitrogen fixation, improve soil structure, and enhance soil nutrient status.

 

Finally, we need to accelerate the cultivation of salt-alkali-tolerant soybean varieties, research and development of technology to reduce salt content in saline-alkali land, fully utilize the saline-alkali land to plant soybeans and other crops, and "dig for oil" in China's 100 million hectares of saline-alkali land.

 

China Daily: "Cherishing and making reasonable use of every inch of land and effectively protecting arable land" is a basic national policy in China. How can we improve the utilization of land resources while ensuring a stable supply of oil crops?

 

Li: Planting rapeseed during the winter fallow period can effectively improve the utilization of land resources. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of rapeseed, with a planting area of over 6.67 million hectares, accounting for more than 50 percent of the oil crop area. Unlike soybeans, peanuts, and other oil crops, the biggest advantage of winter rapeseed is that it does not compete with grains for land.

 

Winter rapeseed is widely distributed in the Yangtze River Basin and Yunnan-Guizhou region, with a growth period of about 200 days. It is usually sown in October and can be harvested in April or May of the following year. The harvest of rapeseed coincides with the planting of rice, and the autumn rice harvest coincides with the autumn sowing of rapeseed. The rotation of rice and rapeseed has become the main planting mode of winter rapeseed in the main producing areas.

 

Therefore, increasing the support for comprehensive measures and vigorously developing the planting of rapeseed during the winter fallow period is conducive to improving land use efficiency and ensuring stable production and supply of oil crops.

 

China Daily: In addition to ensuring the stable production and supply of oil crops on the production and supply side, what role can consumers play in ensuring national grain and oil security?

 

Li: Influenced by factors such as diet and consumption habits, the per capita consumption of edible oil and "red meat" among Chinese residents has actually exceeded the recommended standards of the dietary guidelines by about 1 and 2 times, respectively. This not only easily leads to diseases such as high blood lipids and hypertension, but also greatly increases the supply pressure of soybean oil crops. Therefore, in addition to the production and supply side, there is also a lot of work to be done on the consumer demand side.

 

To address this, China should increase the promotion of dietary and nutritional education and advocate for healthy eating habits. Not only should we stop wasting food and promote the concept of saving and reducing losses is equivalent to increasing production throughout the entire supply chain, but we should also further strengthen the promotion of dietary and nutritional education, such as advocating for healthy eating habits, changing cooking methods, and controlling the intake of oil and red meat.