Credit: Vilmorin Cie
Keyword No. 6: Lowered Price of Rice While for two years there has been no escalation in the minimum purchase price of mid-late indica and japonica, China’s National Development and Reform Commission lowered the price of rice for the first time this year, and also disclosed that the price would be further lowered in 2018, and it might even cancel the mandated minimum purchase price of the early-season rice. The prices of early Indica rice, mid-late Indica and Japonica have been lowered respectively by Yuan0.03, Yuan0.02 and Yuan0.05 per 1/2 kg this year. The prices were lowered to convey the message that the supply of rice is now exceeding demand. The reform in pricing mechanism, and the purchasing and storage of key farming products such as grain will follow the idea of“variety-differentiated planning and gradual progression,” where basic policy framework stays unchanged while the flexibility of policies is increased, which means that pricing needs to reflect the market demand accurately. If pricing is distorted, then what happened to corn will happen to rice also (reduction of planting area).
Keyword No. 7: Adjustment of Planting Structure To meet the requirement of stability in grain crop, quality of economic crop, and expansion of feed crop, efforts are being made to speed up the formation of “grain-crop, economic-crop and feed-crop ternary planting structure.” For grain crop planting, stress is laid on stability and security with special focus on quality rice and high (low)gluten wheat. The decrease in non-advantageous grain corn shall continue. Planting of quality food soybean, potato and various beans shall continue. For economic crop planting, quality of varieties and regional distribution for plantation will be optimized. Cotton, oil plants and sugar production shall continue; effect and value of horticultural plants shall increase. For feed crop planting, planting area will be expanded so as to grow silo corn and high quality forage such as alfalfa, and a modern feed industry system will be established. The restructuring of agriculture and pasturage-interlaced zone of northern China shall be accelerated to shape a plantation structure, which is breeding-oriented, rather than plantation only, as well as livestock-agroforestry and grass-fruit-vegetable integrated. The grain-change-to-feed and grain-change-to-soybean subsidy pilot program shall continue.
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Seed Sectors Around the Globe
Seed Times January - April 2018