| Grain reserve is one of the major strategic reserves of a country, in other words, it means no food, no stability. The role of grain reserve in maintaining national food security (and even social stability) is reflected in the following aspects.First, it is bound to reserve grain, because of the periodicity of grain production and the continuity of food demand. For example, in some areas of southern Yangtze River delta in China, three crops a year can be achieved, while in most other areas, two crops a year, and in the northeast or north region, only one crop a year. Even in these areas with two crops a year, the two crops may not meet the various needs of food. Therefore, before the crop ripening in next season, there must be an appropriate amount of grain reserve to supply the market, to meet the continuous demand for food rations, feed and industrial use of grain, in order to achieve the food and social stability in China.Secondly, due to the characteristics of food as a necessity, its demand is very inelastic; on the other hand, with a longer period of food grown, the current price significantly affects the supply of next period, resulting in the food supply is quite flexible. With the inelastic supply and elastic demand, it is easy to form a divergent cobweb of the supply and demand curves in grain market. Divergent cobweb itself is difficult to make the market supply and demand into equilibrium; in the contrary, it tends to enlarge the market fluctuations. The instability of this base price, transmitted to the social economies, becomes the incentives for inflation and deflation, and seriously interferes with or even destroys the normal operation of the social economies. Thus, in order to maintain the relative stability of the market price, to maintain the smooth operation of the economic order, it is necessary to regulate the grain market. The core is the grain reserve, which means the state purchases gain when it’s time to harvest the grain (especially good harvest), so as to avoid the too low market price, causing "the lower grain price, the more hurt farmers"; and during poor harvest, the market price of grain may be high, and the reserved grain is appropriate to be spit out, in order to stabilize the market, not causing "the higher grain price, the more hurt consumers".Thirdly, owing to the particularity "large population, small land" and small-scale cultivation in China, the income of individual farmer who grows grain is not high. Because of the small-scale cultivation, facing the monopolistic buyer, farmers have minimal market bargaining power.Finally, in addition to the above normal factors, the existence of natural disasters, wars and other non-normal factors, as well as the quasi-public goods nature of food, as necessities, also makes grain reserve become necessary. China is a natural disaster-prone country. It often happens when the reduction of output is3-5%and the production of a particular year even reached more than10%(e.g.1991). Readiness food is one the factors that must be taken into account in national strategy; for instance, grain506is a typical military preparing food.Grain reserve plays an important role in the response to the food crisis. But only to establish food reserve is far from enough. If the reserve system can not be optimized, the regulation of grain reserves will not be able to play its due role, which is a great waste for grain reserve resources. Therefore, what’s the matter with the grain reserve management in China?1. Unclear definition of grain reserve target and continuous expansion of the reserve capacity. Through it seems perfect for China Grain Reserves Corporation to regard the "two guarantees" and "three maintenances" as the goals, these all security costs are the increasing operational expansion of the China Grain Reserves Corporation and the huge fiscal expenditure especially central fiscal expenditure. Besides, mixed with multi-objective, this policy company---the China Grain Reserves Corporation---started to engage in profitable business and the ultimate result was that the China Grain Reserves Corporation held the country’s financial subsidies to do business, losing its policy intent.2. Unclear central and local government responsibilities. Since the Central Rural Work Conference in1995, the central government requires local governments to be responsible for the region’s food security, namely the so-called "provincial governor responsibility system". And specific requirements are to reserve grain in accordance with the standard that "not less than three months in the producing areas, not less than six months in the sales area ". However, due to the fiscal reforms in the same period, the depletion of local government revenue, and a lot of infrastructure construction, the local governments maintain a double face toward the specifically requested construction on grain reserves by the central government. Of course, this policy itself "the centralization on financial power, the decentralization on business power" is difficult to be in-depth and sustainable. Moreover, in a unified market for free trade and free competition, it is impossible for a certain area on its own (that is, closed) to deal with food crisis (in particular, fluctuations in food prices), and it also runs counter to the direction of development of the market economy.3. Unreasonable reserves varieties and regional distribution. From the perspective of the reserves cost, wheat maintains higher reserves resistance with lower cost. But the majority of our residents (particularly the southern city residents), take rice as a staple food. And the increased imports of corn and soybeans as well as their dramatically increasing use also put forward a new challenge for the reserved structure and varieties. In terms of layout, the biggest change is that our country has changed from "ship grain from the south to the north" to "ship grain from the north to the south". This significant change of the sales areas layout requires the re-adjustment of the current reserve layout. In addition, for the purpose of reducing storage costs and rapid intervention regulation, it is necessary to re-adjust the layout of the existing reserves according to the needs of socio-economic development and transportation changes.In the marketized today, the planned means and ideas can not be used in the regulation of food, because the marketization itself means the price fluctuations and the constant adjustment of supply and demand. Furthermore, these fluctuations and adjustment optimize resources, to a certain extent, which is the effective realization of the original intention and purpose of marketization. But it is undeniable that the sharp fluctuation in food prices is difficult to accept by residents and farmers. This put forward more stringent requirements for government on food regulation. It is necessary to follow the laws of the market to run as much as possible, and also take full account of the relevant parties on the affordability of market volatility. Therefore, it will be worthwhile exploring how to construct of the grain reserve system in a new marketized environment.The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate the successes and shortcomings of our national food reserves in the present stage, to explain what kind of food reserve target, reserve size, reserve structure and pattern will better safeguard the food security of our country, and how to implement other social and economic goals and, thus, identify the needed points to adjust and improve China’s grain reserves through the comparison and contrast, and ultimately get the conclusion and the corresponding policy recommendations.The general idea of this paper is centered on the optimization of national grain reserves, and expanded around the determining of reserve target, the estimation of the scale, the division of responsibilities, the adjustment of regions and varieties. Among them, reserve target is the basis; the estimation of the scale is the optimization of the scale; the division of responsibility is the optimization of the main body; the adjustment of regions and varieties is the structural optimization. In this way, the amount of reserves and the main and regional varieties interact with each other, and are united in the reserve target, that is,"three maintenances". Specifically, it can be divided into the following sections:Chapter one is an introduction of this paper, which firstly analyzes the overall background and significance of the research, and then describes the relationship among research content, clarify the writing ideas and structural arrangements, and points out the innovation and shortcomings.Chapter two concisely reviews the history of China’s grain reserve system (after liberation), to find the paths and causes of the evolution of China’s national grain reserve system, and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of China’s current grain reserve system. In addition, the mode of operation of the foreign government grain reserves is systematic described, learned and analyzed to optimize China’s grain reserve system.Chapter three mainly analyzes how to determine the national grain reserve goals. Firstly, the relationship between food security and food reserves is introduced, then based on which, the core objectives of food reserves and derivatives targets are analyzed, in order to establish the direction for the adjustment and optimization of the national grain reserve system. The "two guarantees" and "three maintenances" of China Grain Reserves Corporation ensure national food security on the one hand, but on the other hand it leads the excessive reserve capacity and heavy financial burden because of too much targets. This chapter briefly brings out policies on reducing the reserve capacity, splitting the business scope and so on, paving the way for the later part.In chapter four, the scale of grain reserves is the focus of grain reserve system optimization. Thus, this chapter begins with the analysis from the theories on how to determine the scale of grain reserves, finds the key factors affecting the size of grain reserves, and thus expands the estimation of reserve size. This paper mainly use two methods:the maximum annual yield difference method and FAO Food Reserve Standard based on nutrition to calculate the reasonable size of China’s grain reserves at this stage.In chapter five, the grain reserves can stabilize the market, protect farmers’ income, and maintain national food security, and therefore it has a certain public goods characteristics, which is the theoretical basis for government to intervene grain reserves. So, in a unified free flow market economy environment, the central government’s decentralization (such as "food provincial governor responsibility system", etc.) can really protect the country’s food security? The answer is no, because the circulation of the market economy, resulting in the food crisis rapidly spread from one place to another. If local government is fragmented, it may actually lead to the emergence of "reverse control" based on local interest. Therefore, the central government should assume primary responsibility in the food reserves; Of course, the grain reserve of the local government is not completely canceled, but requires the needed adjustment. An important direction is to cooperate with the central government, stand out features, and enhance mobility and flexibility.In chapter six, it discusses that it is necessary to ensure amount of the grain reserves but also optimize its species structure and regional distribution, because whether grain reserves varieties structure and regional distribution is scientific and reasonable greatly influences the stable operation of the grain market, is directly related to the move of national grain reserves, and is directly related to national food security. This chapter is based on this study point.Chapter seven is a conclusion on the basis of the above studies and gives policy recommendations on the optimization of China’s grain reserve system.In Chapter eight, while briefly discussing the shortcomings and limitations of this research, the author put forward some immature outlook and ideas of researches on how to carry on national food security... |
