How is China able to provide enough food to feed its population of over 1 billion people? Do they im

[Mista]

Chinese agriculture productivity is still very low. 300mill farmers to support 1.4bil people. The majority of farmers are in the rural area, and they engage in small-scale farming due to the lack of land and capital.

In the US it's 3.4mil farmers feeding 300mil people, around 1% of the population. And they still have enough food to export, like soybeans.

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2019/2017Census_Farm_Producers.pdf

 

[beijingwalker]

Chinese agriculture productivity is still very low. 300mill farmers to support 1.4bil people. The majority of farmers are in the rural area, and they engage in small-scale farming due to the lack of land and capital.

In the US it's 3.4mil farmers feeding 300mil people, around 1% of the population. And they still have enough food to export, like soybeans.

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2019/2017Census_Farm_Producers.pdf

Even Chinese farmers do not grow much food, most of them grow economic crops or are in animal husbandry, food and crops are so cheap in the global market and it's not worth it to grow them, let Americans be our farmers.

 

[Mista]

Even Chinese farmers do not grow much food, most of them grow economic crops or are in animal husbandry, food and crops are so cheap in the global market and it's not worth it to grow them, let Americans be our farmers.

There are probably more farmers in China than the total population of the US, and farmers make up only 1% of the population in the US. But it's okay if you want to think that way and take that condescending attitude.

 

[Menthol]

The article is spectacularly amazing!!!

 

[Fledgingwings]

Amazing!

 

[TaiShang]

Chinese agriculture productivity is still very low. 300mill farmers to support 1.4bil people. The majority of farmers are in the rural area, and they engage in small-scale farming due to the lack of land and capital.

In the US it's 3.4mil farmers feeding 300mil people, around 1% of the population. And they still have enough food to export, like soybeans.

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2019/2017Census_Farm_Producers.pdf

This year's Two Sessions have stressed straightening China's farm business through small farm unification, mechanization and reducing chemical pesticide use.

I think we will continue to see China's agriculture industry to shrink in terms of workforce while productivity increases. Nevertheless, there will still be a huge workforce in the industry because China's more controlled urbanization to avoid slums-formation, which is good.

 

[Nan Yang]

Soon China will have thousands of these salmon farms .

 

[Mista]

This year's Two Sessions have stressed straightening China's farm business through small farm unification, mechanization and reducing chemical pesticide use.

I think we will continue to see China's agriculture industry to shrink in terms of workforce while productivity increases. Nevertheless, there will still be a huge workforce in the industry because China's more controlled urbanization to avoid slums-formation, which is good.

China doesn't need so many farmers. Even in PPP terms, US farmers are still more than 10x as productive as Chinese farmers. If Chinese farmers can be as half as productive, it free up lots of labor for other sectors of the economy.

But that isn't easy to do. You need to accumulate capital, knowledge, land and amongst all a free market trading system where more efficient farms take over and achieve economies of scale. Right now it's hard for Chinese farmers to accumulate capital because their income/profits are low, unless they can sell land/get a loan.

 

[Brainsucker]

This year's Two Sessions have stressed straightening China's farm business through small farm unification, mechanization and reducing chemical pesticide use.

I think we will continue to see China's agriculture industry to shrink in terms of workforce while productivity increases. Nevertheless, there will still be a huge workforce in the industry because China's more controlled urbanization to avoid slums-formation, which is good.

btw, I have a question about China farm area. Do they have problem with the shrink of Farm area? Like a farm area that being built as real estates, etc? Or do their government strictly prohibited a new real estate to be built in a farmland area?

The most problem that we, Indonesian face is the shrink of Farm Land Area just because they build many real estates on them.

 

[TaiShang]

btw, I have a question about China farm area. Do they have problem with the shrink of Farm area? Like a farm area that being built as real estates, etc? Or do their government strictly prohibited a new real estate to be built in a farmland area?

The most problem that we, Indonesian face is the shrink of Farm Land Area just because they build many real estates on them.

There are arable land protection laws but I think they are not being fully or properly implemented in some cases.

I think, historically, the size of arable land peaked in the 1980, then continued to decline by 2013. From 2013 onwards, there has been a spike in the size of arable land. I think in 2015, it has reached 1990s level.

One reason in decline is excessive use of pesticides, which is related to farmers' education, wealth and supervision - as @Mista says.

Another reason is related to the size of the farms, which is small as compared to developed West.

***

Variations of farm size across countries and years. (A) Farm size changes with agricultural labor productivity (agricultural value added per rural population) in different countries; (B) farm size changes with urbanization; (C) distribution of farm size in China and other world regions on the basis of farm area; (D) distribution of farm size in China and other world regions on the basis of household numbers. Data sources for A and B were FAO and World Bank Open Data.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1806645115

 

[rott]

Ha ha ha ha ha. I am thinking to open one three of disgusting behaviour of Chinese here.

You should open it. Don't forget to invite @WebMaster @waz @The Eagle @Dubious and other important members.
We are all waiting for the thread.