| FAQ |
| Why are China's food problems important for global
research? |
 |
Famine in China
(such as during the Great Leap Forward) could de-stabilize the country and jeopardize the
process of economic and political reform. Thus, China's food prospects are of
geo-strategic and geo-political relevance to the West. |
|
China will probably
become a major importer of (feed) grain - not necessarily because of domestic grain
production deficits, but more likely because rich coastal provinces will find it
economically attractive to buy grain on cheep international markets, rather than from
domestic hinterland provinces. China's future grain import is of great (economic) interest
to the large grain exporters (USA, France, Australia, etc.). |
|
China's tremendous
success in feeding a 1.3 billion population from scarce arable land can be used as a model
of reform for Russia and Africa. While China had been reporting one bumper harvest after
the other for the last 15 years, Russia and Africa stumbled from one food crises to the
next. The study of China's success story in agricultural reform ("family
farming") and economic liberalization could inspire both politicians and scientists. |
|
In a few years China
could become a serious competitor in agricultural biotechnology. "'China is clearly
the most advanced country in the world in terms of using genetic markers and tools in rice
breeding': says Gary Toenniessen, director of the rice biotechnology program at the
Rockefeller Foundation" (Science, Vol. 270, p. 1147). Unhampered by ecological
protests and driven by the political objective of national food self-sufficiency China is
already conducting the largest field experiments of genetically modified plants
worldwide. |
 |
|
|
Revision 2.0 (First revision published in 1999)
- Copyright © 2011 by Gerhard K. Heilig. All rights reserved. (First revision: Copyright © 1999 by IIASA.) |
| |