Ending Hunger Requires Global Efforts
消除饥饿需要全球共同努力
Chinese Ambassador to Canada, H. E. Cong Peiwu Published a Signed Article on The Hill Times
驻加拿大大使丛培武在《国会山时报》发表署名文章
6 September 2022
2022年9月6日
When it comes to world records, many of my Canadian friends mention the total 14 Olympic gold medals won by Canadian men’s ice hockey team and women’s ice hockey team. Some refer to Usain Bolt’s 9.58 second sprint in 100 meters. Today, I would like to share with you a world record born in a rice field. Last October, Mr. Xie Huaan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced with excitement among villagers and reporters gathered in a rice field in China’s Hunan province that the average yield per mu was 936.1 kg based on the late rice harvested in a 30.5 mu (15 mu = 1 hectare) rice field. In July of the same year, the average yield per mu of early rice in the same land was 667.8 kg. The total of 1603.9 kg created a surprising new world record of per-unit yield of double-cropping rice.
谈到世界纪录，很多加拿大朋友向我提及加拿大男女国家冰球队合计赢得了14块奥运金牌的纪录。也有人谈到博尔特9.58秒的百米世界纪录。今天我想同大家分享的是一个诞生在稻田的世界纪录。去年10月，中国科学院院士谢华安在中国湖南省的一块稻田里向聚集而来的村民和记者兴奋地宣布，通过对刚收割的30.5亩（15亩=1公顷）晚稻田测产，平均亩产高达936.1公斤。同年7月在这块田收割的早稻平均亩产为667.8公斤，两者相加达1603.9公斤，创造了一个让人惊喜的新的双季稻单产世界纪录。
Food security is an issue of common concern to mankind, including the people of China and Canada. In recent years, COVID-19, weather extremes, and regional conflicts have led to a reduction in grain production in some countries and sharp rises in international prices for grain, posing serious challenges to global food security. The latest report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) shows that the number of people affected by hunger worldwide reached 828 million in 2021, with an increase of 46 million people compared with that of 2020. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, believes that we face an unprecedented global hunger crisis in 2022 and 2023 could be even worse.
粮食安全是包括中、加两国人民在内的全人类共同关心的问题。近年来，新冠疫情、极端气候、地区冲突等导致部分国家粮食减产和国际市场粮食价格大幅上涨，给全球粮食安全带来严峻挑战。联合国粮农组织、世界粮食计划署等发布的最新报告显示，2021年全球受饥饿影响的人数达8.28亿，比2020年增加约4600万人。联合国秘书长古特雷斯认为，2022年全球面临前所未有的饥饿危机，2023年危机可能进一步恶化。
Improving food security is a common task facing mankind. Ending hunger requires the concerted efforts of all countries. Unlike Canada, which has a small population living in a vast territory, China has nearly 20 percent of the world population with only nine percent of the planet’s arable land. To ensure food security, the Chinese government carefully protects the farmland. Meanwhile, it strengthens the construction of farmland infrastructure and builds high-standard farmland that are resistant to drought and flood. For decades, Chinese scientists have continuously promoted scientific and technological innovation in the seed industry, improved agricultural mechanization and management, and greatly increased grain yield per unit area. Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice, led his scientific research team to successfully cultivate the first hybrid rice strain that yielded 20 percent more rice than conventional varieties in 1973. The 2nd and 3rd generations were cultivated afterwards. With the long-term and unremitting efforts of all sectors of society, China’s grain output in 2021 reached 680 million tons, and the per capita share of grain output reached 484kg, higher than the world average.
提高粮食安全保障水平是人类面临的共同任务，消除饥饿需要各国团结协作、共同努力。与加拿大人少地多不同，中国人口占世界总人口的近20%，耕地仅占世界耕地总面积的9%。为保障粮食安全，中国政府精心保护耕地，同时加强农田基础设施建设，建设高标准农田，做到“旱能灌、涝能排”。几十年来，中国科学家不断推进种业科技创新，提高农业机械化和经营管理水平，粮食单产大幅提高。杂交水稻之父袁隆平先生率领科研团队于1973年成功培育出首个杂交水稻品种，将中国水稻单产提高了20%以上，此后又先后育成第二代和第三代杂交水稻。在社会各界长期不懈努力下，2021年中国粮食总产达6.8亿吨，人均产量达484千克，高于世界平均水平。
While actively solving its own food issue, the Chinese government, by providing emergency food aid, constructing agricultural technology demonstration centers, and carrying out agricultural technology training, has not only provided food assistance but also taught people how to produce food, in an effort to help developing countries better safeguard food security, thus making contributions to the realization of global zero hunger. Since the FAO launched South-South cooperation in 1996, China has sent more than 1,100 agricultural experts to over 40 countries and regions in Africa, Asia, South Pacific, who have brought and introduced more than 1,000 agricultural technologies to the countries and regions, increasing crop yields by 30 to 60 percent on average.
中国政府在积极解决自身粮食问题的同时，通过提供紧急粮食援助、援建农业技术示范中心、开展农业技术培训等方式，既授人以鱼，又更多地授人以渔，帮助发展中国家提高粮食安全保障水平，努力为推动实现全球“零饥饿”目标贡献力量。自1996年联合国粮农组织开展南南合作以来，中国向非洲、亚洲、南太平洋等地区的40多个国家和地区，派出了超过1100名农业专家，示范推广农业技术1000多项，项目区的粮食单产提高了30%—60%。
In 2021, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative at the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations which took food security as one of the eight fields of cooperation. State Councilor Wang Yi put forward eight initiatives on international food security cooperation at the recent G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, including supporting the central role of the United Nations in coordination; not imposing export restriction on humanitarian food purchases by the WFP; facilitating the entry of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian agricultural products and inputs into the international market; major food-producing and net food-exporting countries should release their own export potential, reduce trade and technical barriers, and control making fuel out of crops, so as to ease the tight food supply in the market; emergency measures taken by countries for food trade should be short-term, transparent, targeted and appropriate, and conform to the rules of the World Trade Organization; supporting the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the cooperation on agricultural science and technology innovation among countries, and reducing restrictions on high-tech exchanges; reducing food loss and waste; helping developing countries enhance their capacity for food production, storage and loss reduction in terms of capital, technology, market and others. These initiatives are actively responded to by many developing countries.
2021年，习近平主席在第76届联大会议上提出全球发展倡议，把粮食安全作为八大合作领域之一。王毅国务委员在近期召开的二十国集团外长会上提出关于国际粮食安全合作的八点倡议，包括支持联合国中心协调作用；不对世界粮食计划署开展的人道主义粮食采购实施出口限制措施；为俄罗斯、乌克兰、白俄罗斯的农产品和农业投入品顺利进入国际市场提供便利；主要粮食生产和净出口国减少贸易和技术壁垒，控制粮食能源化利用，纾解市场供给紧张局面；各国采取的粮食贸易应急措施应是短期、透明、有针对性和适当的，并符合世贸组织规则；支持国际农业研究磋商组织及各国农业科技创新合作，减少高新科技交流限制；减少粮食损耗；在资金、技术、市场等方面帮助发展中国家提升粮食生产、收储和减损能力。上述倡议受到广大发展中国家积极响应。
It has been a universal consensus that the joint efforts of the international community are the inevitable choice to solve the global issues of food security. China will continue to firmly follow the path of food security with Chinese characteristics, and strengthen food security cooperation with other countries including Canada while ensuring its food security, to make more contributions to attaining the United Nations’ goals of “ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture” by 2030.
国际社会共同努力是解决全球粮食安全问题的必然选择,这已是各国的普遍共识。中国将继续坚定不移走中国特色粮食安全之路，在保障自身粮食安全的同时，不断加强与包括加拿大在内的世界各国的粮食安全合作，为实现联合国2030“消除饥饿，实现粮食安全，改善营养状况和促进可持续农业”目标作出更多贡献。