Farmers load the harvested rice at Gangkou township in Yueyang county, Central China's Hunan province. PHOTO/XINHUA

Country's experience in reducing waste, increasing output shared around world

China's accumulated experience in reducing food loss and waste is being shared with the world and can help developing countries improve their ability to reduce food loss and ensure food security, experts and officials said.

About 14 percent of the world's food is lost during the processes from production to retail, and reducing that loss by 1 percentage point would be equal to a 28 million metric ton increase in grain output, which could feed 70 million people for a year, according to the State of Food and Agriculture 2019 report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

According to the FAO, over 155 million people experienced acute food insecurity in 2020, the highest number in the past five years, because of conflict, extreme weather events and economic shocks related to COVID-19.

Wu Laping, a professor at China Agricultural University's College of Economics and Management, said food loss and waste is largely affected by economic development, with developing countries losing food mainly before it is retailed and developed countries after retail.

For instance, food loss and waste mostly occurs in harvesting and storage in Africa and South Asia. Up to 30 percent of food loss was found during farmers' storage in some areas in Africa, and 21 percent of food in the United States was wasted during daily consumption, Wu told Economic Daily.

Compared with the world average, the food loss and waste situation in China is comparatively better. China loses 35 million tons of grain before retail each year, an amount roughly equal to the overall grain output of Sichuan province last year — 35.8 million tons.

China's experience shows that increasing grain output while reducing food loss and waste is a significant way to ensure national food security. In November, the country issued an action plan on saving food in multiple procedures to add "invisible" high-quality farmland.

Meanwhile, the reduction in loss and waste saves land, water, fertilizer and pesticides, and thus protects the environment and reduces carbon dioxide emissions, helping sustainable development.

"Because different countries face food loss and waste in different procedures, each country should find measures based on its situation," Wu said.

Lesser developed economies should focus on saving food during harvest and storage, which can be achieved by promoting varieties that can resist unfavorable conditions, such as weather and pests, and by improving modern agricultural machinery, high-quality storage and transportation equipment, he added.

China has made progress in saving food by promoting laws against food waste and action plans on saving food and reducing loss in the whole process from harvest to retail, Zhou Guanhua, of the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, said last month.

"We have built 5,400 postproduction service centers, covering 1,000 major grain-producing counties in the country, to provide services including cleaning, drying, storing, processing and retailing," Zhou said, adding that the daily drying capacity can reach 1.1 million tons.

The centers can greatly reduce food loss that occurs through poor storage facilities and limited drying ability after harvest, as some farmers in Northeast China still dry grain on the ground or pile it in their yards.

Innovation, technologies and infrastructure are critical to increasing the efficiency of food systems and to reducing food loss and waste.

Zhou said new technologies to better store grain have been applied in warehouses. "Large grain depots in the country can reduce the rate of grain loss during storage to less than 1 percent."

The special vehicles for bulk grain, devices for unloading grain trucks, and automatic scales have proved effective, he said.

'Healthy eating'

People's growing awareness of "healthy eating" instead of seeking out refined staple foods has gradually prompted processing companies to transition from overprocessing to moderate processing.

"China is developing key technologies and equipment for moderate processing to help solve the problem of nutrition loss and impaired protein function due to overprocessing."

In September, China hosted the International Conference on Food Loss and Waste in Shandong province. The recent food action plan proposes to make the conference a regular event.

Ma Youxiang, vice-minister of agriculture and rural affairs, said China would take the conference as an opportunity to promote establishing an international cooperation mechanism for reducing food loss and working together to boost world food security.

As the largest developing country, China has actively participated in global food and agriculture management, launching cooperative procedures in saving food with other countries.

Under the projects of the FAO, the World Food Programme and other international organizations, China shared information, techniques and talent with other countries, especially developing ones, to improve their ability to reduce food loss, Ma said.

Sui Pengfei, director of the ministry's department of international cooperation, said the country will strengthen its collaborative research and development of techniques and equipment applied to key procedures for saving food.

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記者：趙伊夢

播報：Corrie Knight

音頻編輯：萬月英

【背景閱讀】

保障世界糧食安全的中國貢獻

2021年10月16日是第41個世界糧食日。受新冠肺炎疫情、氣候變化、地區(qū)沖突等多種因素影響，世界糧食安全面臨嚴峻挑戰(zhàn)。糧食安全是事關人類生存的根本性問題。作為世界人口最多的國家之一，中國為保障世界糧食安全采取有效行動，發(fā)揮積極作用。

“民以食為天”，歷史上中國人長期受到糧食問題困擾。新中國成立后，中國人民依靠自己的力量實現(xiàn)了糧食基本自給。作為全球最大發(fā)展中國家，中國把中國人的飯碗牢牢端在自己手上，這樣的偉大發(fā)展成就本身就為世界糧食安全作出重大貢獻。聯(lián)合國糧食峰會特使卡里巴塔說：“中國很好地管理好了自己的糧食庫存，不僅保障了中國人民的糧食供給，也為世界人民的糧食安全作出了貢獻?！奔砥艺賳T埃塔說，中國成功保障自身糧食安全的做法，值得其他國家學習。

達則兼濟天下。中國在實現(xiàn)糧食增收增產的同時，積極為推動世界實現(xiàn)零饑餓、零貧困目標貢獻力量。在馬達加斯加，中國提供的雜交水稻技術讓很多當?shù)厝恕霸僖矝]有餓過肚子”；在古巴，中國帶去的“辣木”豐富了古巴人的“菜籃子”；在斐濟，中國傳授的菌草技術幫助農民減貧致富，讓很多人看到生活的希望。中國政府2021年9月公布的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，在作物生產、畜牧業(yè)水產養(yǎng)殖、農田水利、農產品加工等領域，中國向多個國家進行1500多項技術推廣和示范，帶動項目區(qū)平均增產40%至70%，超過150萬戶小農從中受益。在“一帶一路”倡議沿線國家，中國推動農業(yè)對外投資合作，把當?shù)氐纳a能力，特別是發(fā)展中國家的生產能力提高了很大一步。

同時，中國還推動國際社會加強政策協(xié)調，從全球層面提升糧農治理能力，推動各國在糧食減損、運輸、檢疫、進出口貿易等方面形成合理的國際規(guī)則，促進形成公平公正的國際糧食市場秩序。

近年來，中國在努力提高人民生活水平的同時，還大力弘揚浪費可恥、節(jié)約光榮之風，在減少食物損失和浪費方面的成效有目共睹。從2013年發(fā)起“光盤行動”到2021年頒布實施《反食品浪費法》，再到呼吁世界各國加快行動、切實減少世界糧食損耗，中國倡議和舉措為進一步保障世界糧食安全提供了理念和經(jīng)驗借鑒。

維護糧食安全，中國與世界命運休戚與共。中國將繼續(xù)與世界各國團結合作，為共同維護世界糧食安全作出不懈努力，為推動構建人類命運共同體作出新的貢獻。（來源：新華社）

責任編輯：錢耐安