June 25, 1998

IFPRI and China Hold Workshop to Examine Chinese Food and Agricultural Policy Goals

Against this backdrop, the Washington, D.C.-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and China are holding a joint workshop at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing on June 25 and 26. The main focus is to analyze China's various food and agricultural policy options and determine how they might meet its national development goals. The workshop will provide Chinese government agencies and research institutions with the opportunity to identify their most urgent policy information needs, and provide IFPRI and China a forum to discuss future collaboration.

"One of the most important outcomes of the workshop will be determining the extent to which China will need to depend on food imports," said Per Pinstrup-Andersen, IFPRI's director general. "The rest of the world will certainly notice the answer to that question."

This is not the first time IFPRI has worked with Chinese colleagues on these issues. A collaborative study analyzing future Chinese food supply and demand has found that China will essentially be able to meet its grain demand over the next two decades, with a 5 to 10 percent gap filled by imports from the international market. The joint IFPRI-Chinese report predicted that China will gradually increase its grain imports, but will not become a large grain importer. In order to achieve this goal, however, the Chinese government has to maintain its support for agriculture-–particularly government investment in agricultural technology and infrastructure–-and must promote market reforms. The study recommended that in addition to food security, the Chinese government should tackle other essential policy issues, such as increasing farmers' living standards, alleviating poverty, addressing regional equity, and protecting natural resources.

At the upcoming workshop, IFPRI and its Chinese colleagues plan to revisit the recommendations and to probe other issues, including the development of marginal land, priorities for public and research investment, market development and diversification, trade and macroeconomic policy, and strengthening human capacity. Participants in the workshop will include Pinstrup-Andersen and six senior IFPRI staff members (including a Chinese national), senior Chinese government officials, and researchers from the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Planning Commission, the Development Research Center of the State Council, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing and Nanjing Agricultural universities, and international aid agencies.

IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting food needs of the developing world on a sustainable basis, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and the poorer groups in those countries. IFPRI is a member of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and a leading research institute in the areas of agricultural and food policy. China is a member country of the CGIAR.