At the British Embassy in Beijing the other day the Farmers Weekly party heard how Britain is trying to help China achieve its objective of 95% food sufficiency in the long term. The priority is to transfer UK agricultural technology to enhance yields and improve sustainability, we were told.
But we wondered if such concepts were realistic. First, farm technology is already ahead of the UK in some respects. At a vegetable exhibition attended yesterday we were told that at least half the varieties already grown (and we were told some 2000 different types were grown in this Qingdao area) were genetically modified. Many other crops grown in the country are also GM we were told.
Second, the growth of prosperity in the urban areas we have visited is so fast that it is difficult to imagine how any system could keep up with increasing demand. And when you consider that only 15% of the country is able to be cultivated and the population will rise from its current 1.3billion to 1.5billion within the next ten years, it looks even more unlikely.
Third, why would the Chinese want to buy from Europe, a high cost production area a long way away, when they can just as easily do so from New Zealand, or Thailand, or Brazil where commodities are much cheaper?
Combine this with the received wisdom of all UK civil servants and government officials that self sufficiency for food may be important for countries like China but matters not at all for the UK and you might imagine that we left the Embassy a little frustrated.
However, our farm study tour of this great country, almost a Continent, has only just begun and we must not jump to too many conclusions to soon. Meanwhile we left Beijing feeling that it is, these days, just like any other capital City. High rise office blocks in the huge business district, multi-story appartments and hotels and ubiquitous traffic jams - of cars, not bicycles like they used to be.
All over town gangs of workmen are planting ready grown trees and tarting the place up ready for next years Olympics. Just like they will be in East London in a few years, I presume.