Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Hu Chunhua recently asked the governors of every province in China to ensure that the sown areas of agricultural crops will not shrink and that crop yields will not be reduced this year.
At a meeting on food security, held on July 27 in Beijing, he warned that drivers would be punished if they failed to fulfill the promise, including with dismissal.
And when Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited northeastern Jilin province on July 22, he told the local government to treat grain production as a priority task.
Top officials’ emphasis on food supply has raised questions about whether China has a severe food shortage this year.
In early July, the government body China National Grain and Oils Information Center published its estimates that the gap for supply of maize in the fiscal year 2020-2021 would be 25 million metric tons – more than double the previous estimated 12 million metric tons.
On August 5, the center estimates that China would import six million metric tons of wheat in the 12 months from June 2020 to May 2021, which would be the highest amount in the past seven years.
The center said the wheat was likely to come from France, Russia, Lithuania and Kazakhstan.
In late January, Chinese authorities ordered people to stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, farmers among them.
Around March required restrictions and most farmers were allowed to go out again.
But not long after that, extreme weather over large swaths of China led to the destruction of crops. Since early June, heavy rain has fallen in the south, center and east of the country. Meanwhile, parts of the northwest and northeast are suffering from drought.
Pests such as sprouts and tapeworms have also invaded crops.
Farmers told The Epoch Times that they suspect they will lose their harvest this year.
Flooding
Chinese farmers plant rice in 13 provinces, including Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Fujian. All these provinces were affected by floods in June and July.
Farmers plant rice at three different times of the year. The early season is planted in late March, and harvested in late June. The mid-season is planted in early May and harvested in late September. The late season is planted in late June and harvested in mid-October. The floods in June and July affected all three seasons of rice planting.
Mr. Li is from Poyang County, Jiangxi Province. He told the Chinese-language Epoch Times on July 18: ‘The early rice in our province was ruined before harvest. The mid-season rice was destroyed by the floods. Now it’s too late to plant the late rice. ”
While looking at the phone, Mr. Chen of Hunan Province said farmers in his area had no harvest this year. He and his fellow villagers were worried that they might not have enough food to eat because floods have hit the region continuously.
Drought
Wheat is mainly planted in central and northern China. Farmers harvest only late in the year from late May to early June.
Wheat production in Henan Province contributes roughly to China’s total agricultural production. However, droughts killed crops in Henan, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Jilin and other northern provinces.
Private Chinese grain and oil trading platform CCTIN visited camouflage production areas of Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces and reported that weed quality in 2020 was lower than that in 2019, and production was 15 to 30 percent less than previous years.
The situation in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Xinjiang is worse.
State media Xinhua reported on June 16 that 50.7 percent of the country of Inner Mongolia has suffered from severe droughts this year. The region grows mainly wheat, such as soybeans and maize. Crops and wild grasses were unable to grow, affecting local zoos.
State-run China News reported on June 3 that the dry bolt this year led to almost no harvest in Gansu province. ‘I’m 50 years old. I had never seen a drought like this this year, ”said a farmer in Yuzhong City, Gansu said in the report.
One woman in Xinjiang shared a video on social media on July 17, showing large wheat fields that have dried up.
‘You think this yellow color is harvested [wheat]? She all died. Our farmers have not harvested at all this year, ”she said.
的 的 旱 死 死 死 死 死 死 的 吹 吹 吹 吹 吹 吹 pic.twitter.com/yj2HyFfvXi
– 行 行 wenxingwu (@wuwenhang) July 19, 2020
Chinese media reports also noted that due to a two-month drought, two-thirds of the corn crops in northeastern Liaoning Province have dried up.
Pests
Meanwhile, the nearby provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang reported native spraying plagues in June. At the end of June, an invasion of alien locusts entered the Yunnan province of China in the southwest, from Laos, and continued to other regions.
On July 27, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs organized a drill to wipe out sprouts in Yunnan and rumored that more sprouts would remain in Laos in China before the end of August.
Farmers in southern Guangxi and Hunan provinces also reported native farms for spraying in June.
And the fallow-worm, which enjoys grazing maize, was reported to have destroyed crops in Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan and other provinces in July.
Other signs
Recent trends in the Chinese market also indicate that there was a food shortage.
China’s leading producer and supplier of processed agricultural products, state-owned China Agri-Industries Holdings, announced on August 3 that the central government had recently released 3.6 million metric tons of state-reserved rice to the market, which were harvested from 2014 to 2019.
China has a national grain reserve system to maintain food security, but how much it actually has in reserve is questionable.
Meanwhile, all domestic grain prices rose in the first week of August, compared to the same period last year, according to data released by Orient Securities and Huatai Securities.
Soybean prices jumped in particular 37.83 percent, from 3,454 yuan ($ 484.85) per metric ton in August 2019 to 4,761 yuan ($ 682.1) per metric ton in August 2020.
The Chinese regime also recently made record purchases of American agricultural products. On July 29, China purchased its largest ordered order of U.S. corn, 1.937 million metric tons, which will be delivered in the year 2020-21 beginning on September 1, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Previous orders in July also broke previous records. On July 14, the USDA reported that China purchased 1,762 million metric tons of corn and 129,000 metric tons of soybeans.
On July 10, China ordered 1.365 million metric tons of corn, 130,000 metric tons of U.S. hard red winter wheat, and 190,000 metric tons of hard red spring wheat.
Qin, an agricultural researcher in China who only gave his last name because he was not authorized to speak to foreign media, explained that grains have three primary uses in China, which are: food for human consumption, feed for livestock and raw materials to make wine and other industrial products.
He said the current shortage “will not be as serious as people who do not have food to eat… The key is not feed for livestock and poultry. Then people will not have enough meat to eat, “Qin said.
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