African food problem

In the world are actively developing industries, services, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization on October 9 issued a report to the world surprised. Reported that the world is facing the most serious food crisis in 30 years, 40 countries there are varying degrees of food shortages, the urgent need for the international community to provide food aid, or may face famine. US media reported that the current global food reserves barely enough to meet the needs of more than 50 days, has fallen below 70 days of grain reserve line of security. Are these warnings overstated? What is the status of world food security in the end?

The food deficit countries are mainly in Africa

According to a list published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 26 of the 40 food-deficit countries are African countries (Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia,

Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe), 10 Asian countries (Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Korea, Lebanon, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and East Three Latin American countries (Colombia, Cuba, Haiti) and Russia (the Chechen Republic).

The report, "Agricultural crop forecast and food situation," shows that from the current situation in some parts of the world crop crop this year will be cut, this year's global food production is only 2.013 billion tons, compared with 2.68 billion tons in 2004 , Is the second consecutive year showed a downward trend. The US Department of Agriculture is more pessimistic about food production in 2006, predicting that global cereal production this year will be only 1.884 billion tons, which means that this year there will be a large number of gaps to be filled by past years.

Four factors contribute to food shortages

Food security is not just to solve the problem of food and clothing, its strategic significance can not be discounted. At present, the uneven distribution of grain in the world is a major feature. Nearly one-half of the world's 1.5 billion hectares of arable land is used for food production. From the continent, the world's food production is mainly concentrated in Asia, Europe and North America. Food-exporting countries are mainly concentrated in 10 countries, while importing countries are more than 100. In recent years, the United States, Canada, France, Australia and other countries is not only a large grain storage, but also control the world's grain exports about 80%. Some developed countries, with their advanced technology and vast arable land resources, produce far more food than they themselves consume, and they become "weapons" for political and economic interventions in other countries.

China is the world's third largest food aid country

As a big agricultural country and a populous country, China has always been the focus of attention on food issues and has made its own contribution to solving the world's food problem. The last century, the American sociologist Lester Brown wrote "Who will feed China," a book, wanton speculation, "China's food threat theory." Neighboring Japan is also constantly worried about the Chinese people "eat" the sound of their food.

The fact is that China has not let others support, but to feed the world a lot of people. Over the past 25 years, more than 20% of the world's share of major agricultural products from China, China's annual grain output from 300 million tons to 500 million tons, not only answered Brown's questioned fact, also received the UNDP officials, "China in the global millennium Development goals in the contribution made to give high evaluation is not too much "praise, while the so-called" China's food threat theory "unfounded.

Since 2006, China no longer accepts food aid from the United Nations. In September this year, the World Food Program reported that China became the world's third largest donor of food aid after the United States and the European Union in 2005. Reported that China's foreign aid in 2005 than in the previous year increased by 2.6 times. The main target of China's food aid is North Korea, and the other recipient countries are Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Sri Lanka and more than 10 countries.