China's agriculture, smallholders and trade: driven by the livestock revolution?*

Abstract

China's sustained rapid economic growth and development has contributed to the surge in consumption and production of livestock in that country termed the livestock revolution. Consumption trends are first reviewed, and changes in food consumption patterns include a marked shift away from grains and towards meats and dairy products. A question is to what extent this rapid increase in demand for livestock products is reflected in China's agri-food trade statistics? While her agri-food imports have dramatically increased since China's accession to the WTO, livestock products have not made a noticeable contribution, although the import of certain animal feedstuffs has. This implies China's continuing self-sufficiency in most livestock products. The paper next considers developments in China's livestock farming sector and policies that have been contributing to these supply-side developments. The paper concludes with an examina-tion of issues that may be important to the future development of China's, and the world's, livestock situation; this includes future demand developments, and the question of whether future demand growth in China might be met with local production, imports of final product, and/or imports of feedstuffs.

Nitrogen and Phosphorus Use Efficiencies in Dairy Production in China

“…The so‐called livestock revolution (Delgado et al, 1999) has been paralleled by the dairy and beef sectors in China, where production and consumption have increased almost exponentially during the last few decades as a result of the growth in population, urbanization, and income (e.g., Rae, 2008; Rae and Zhang, 2009). The total number of dairy cattle in China increased from 0.06 million head in 1980 to 16.4 million head in 2010, with growth occurring most notably in the 2000s and especially in industrial feedlots (Fig.…”

Long‐distance dispersal and habitat use of the butterfly Byasa impediens in a fragmented subtropical forest

“…, 2009), especially in an area of constantly increasing demands of agricultural products (Li et al. , 2008; Rae, 2008).…”

A review of root, tuber and banana crops in developing countries: past, present and future

“…With the post-globalisation period from 1999 to present, China's economy became much more competitively oriented. In the process, livestock producers became bigger and more inclined to substitute industrialised feed sources based on readily transportable grains for more traditional inputs such as sweetpotato roots mixed with other farm and household remnants (Rae, 2008). Likewise, urban consumers' interest in new, easier to prepare, processed foods as well as a wider array of fresh vegetables dampened demand for fresh sweetpotato for direct human consumption.…”