Early bird
Lan Xinzhen

WE have formed plans earlier than ever before regarding vegetable production of this spring and summer,” said Wang Shoucong, Deputy Director of the Crop Production Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture. “Dedicated efforts will also be made to rehabilitate agricultural production hurt by the recent snow disaster,” said Wang. “Meanwhile, we have already started preparations for spring farming this year. The Ministry of Agriculture will wage a nationwide ‘Year of Grain High Yield’ campaign this year, making it the start of a succession of high grain yields.” The Ministry of Agriculture is just one of the central government departments already preparing for spring planting. Seldom before have government departments made such efforts prior to the Chinese lunar New Year. These early moves are intended to recover from losses arising from the recent snowstorms in many parts of the country. Another reason is to ease inflationary pressure by stabilizing grain yield in 2008.
The State Council recently released the Advice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Improving Rural Infrastructure Construction and Promoting Further Development of Agriculture and Income Growth of Farmers, or the No. 1 Document of 2008. Accordingly, a set of policies will be geared toward agricultural production to ensure the supply of farm produce and address issues concerning agriculture, farmers and rural areas.
Stabilizing fertilizer prices
As the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) stipulated on January 22, the ex-factory price of urea fertilizers overseen by the Central Government will be frozen during the preparatory period for spring farming. The ex-factory prices of locally managed urea, phosphate and compound fertilizers will also be kept in check. Besides these measures, price increases of other fertilizers will be subjected to record filing and approval, and fertilizer enterprises will further enjoy favorably priced supplies of electricity, natural gas and transport services offered by the state. NDRC regulations even capped the difference rate of ex-factory and retail prices of fertilizers under 7 percent.
In another move, the NDRC has pledged a special investigation on fertilizer prices during the preparatory period for spring farming, especially the ex-factory prices of fertilizer producers. According to Cao Changqing, Director of the Department of Price under the NDRC, relevant price departments will intensify their supervision and prompt the materialization of favorable measures. Violations of electricity, natural gas and transport service suppliers against these favorable policies will be resolutely rectified and dealt with. This also applies to fertilizer producers using other products than the favorably priced electricity and natural gas.
“The NDRC will directly undertake investigations on some large fertilizer producers,” said Cao. “Those with records of breaking the ex-factory price ceiling are the key objectives. Once confirmed, they will face severe punishments. Typically bad cases with serious consequences will be exposed to the public. “All these efforts aim to stabilize fertilizer prices and ensure fertilizer supply for the upcoming spring farming.”
Standardizing seeds
On January 25, the Ministry of Agriculture kick-started the crop variety withdrawal mechanism under state examination in an effort to standardize the seed market. Deprived of value, 210 defective crop varieties have been forced to quit the market. The Ministry of Agriculture has even ordered a ban on seed production of the withdrawn varieties. By the end of last year, 2,297 crop varieties had undergone the examination and approval of the state. “Improved varieties contribute nearly 40 percent to the grain yield increase,” said Ma Shuping, Deputy Director with the Crop Production Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture. “Abolishment of the 210 old varieties has little bearing on the plant production in the future.
“The variety management is instrumental in helping fulfill the 2008 yield target of outnumbering that of 2007, set by the Ministry of Agriculture,” Ma pointed out. China’s total grain yield in 2007 was 501.5 billion kg, a rise of 3.5 billion kg over 2006.
The Ministry of Agriculture has adopted a more stringent standard in managing the seeds, featuring the standard update of seed variety examinations and supervision over the quality of seeds in the market. “We have entrusted 12 seed examination institutions to conduct sample investigations on 212 varieties and will release the results to the public before the spring farming,” said Ma. “Unqualified varieties will be barred from entering the market. “The Ministry of Agriculture will also clear up seeds producers and sales agents and revoke the licenses of those unqualified. Meanwhile, we will join hands with the State Administration for Commerce and Industry to purify rampant seed advertisements.”
Steady yield
For the first time since 1985, China recorded high grain yields in 2007 for the fourth consecutive year. However, grain prices have continuously climbed in defiance of the high yields. In 2007, the comprehensive production price of wheat, rice, corn and soybeans soared 12 percent over the previous year and the retail price of grain edged up around 6.5 percent. Rising grain prices were a major factor driving up consumer prices in 2007. Worse still, the biggest blizzard in 50 years took a serious toll on winter crops. By January 29, low and freezing temperatures had damaged 105 million mu (7 million hectares) of crops, of which 11.31 million mu (754,000 hectares) of crops were wiped out. According to Wang, rapeseed, vegetables, oranges and wheat were the most affected crops. Stable grain production is of vital importance to the mitigation of inflationary pressures in 2008. “We’ll stay on alert and spare no effort to halt the decline of grain yields to ensure a sustainable supply,” added Wang.
Oil-bearing crops will be the focus of aid from the Ministry of Agriculture. The ministry has vowed to push through a revitalization plan of oil-bearing crop production in 2008, aimed at bringing the growing area back to 2006 levels to reap a total yield of 47 million tons. Chinese vegetable oil-processing enterprises have been plagued by a strained supply of raw materials due to the shrinkage of oil-bearing crop production areas in 2007. As a result, the price of vegetable oil rose substantially in the year. “There are large soybean production bases in north China and winter rapeseed production bases in the Yangtze River valley,” noted Wang. “We hope to further tap the production potential of oil-bearing crops.”
Related
The Advice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Improving Rural Infrastructure Construction and Promoting Further Development of Agriculture and Income Growth of Farmers runs eight chapters and 43 articles, summarized in the following four parts: Part 1: More efforts should be made to coordinate rural and urban development and address the three issues concerning agriculture, farmers and rural areas. On a smaller scale, in 2008, the Central Government will pump heavier investment into rural infrastructure. The allocation of revenues from land occupation taxes and urban maintenance fees will be adjusted. The local counterpart fund of charity and ecological projects in state-level poverty-stricken counties also faces changes in its proportions.
Part 2: Policies that support and benefit agriculture will be further improved and solidified, with the aim of realizing increases in direct subsidies for cereal crops, subsidies to improve crop strains, subsidies to purchase farm machinery, and comprehensive subsidies to cover the price of agricultural production materials. Beside this, intensified efforts will be made to explore a mechanism integrating economic and social development in both urban and rural areas. Part 3: Importance is attached to improving basic public services for agricultural production and rural lives. Especially, attention will be paid to offering farmers technological services and social services in operation and circulation of agricultural products, as well as information services. A mature rural market should be fostered and all kinds of rural specialists cultivated. A set of rural systems needs promotion, including the rural compulsory education system, the new rural cooperative medicare system and the rural minimum living allowance system.
Part 4: Continuous efforts will be made to push forward rural institutional and organizational development, with focus laid on deepening a set of rural reforms, such as the reform of township organization, rural fiscal management system reform, rural financial system reform and the reform of the collective forest right system.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review Articles Exchange Item)



NATO’s debacle in Afghanistan
Furzana Shaheen

Long seen as the ‘forgotten war’ eclipsed by Iraq in US priorities, Afghanistan is in the limelight these days due to different reports published by the prestigious institutes, the US-based Atlantic Council, the Afghan Study Group, the British Institute of Strategic Studies, and Oxfam all maintaining that American and NATO forces are failing in Afghanistan and calling for new thinking and new comprehensive strategy. Besides, there are more reports of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates asking his NATO counterparts for more troops and equipment and to remove the caveats on the employment of NATO contingents in the counter-insurgency operations in the South and East of Afghanistan. These demands are repeated again and again but have not elicited positive responses. No other country, which has its fighting forces in Afghanistan, except for the US seems inclined to increase its presence.
The problems for the Afghan Government have multiplied as NATO countries are reluctant to send their troops to the Southern Afghanistan where they are most needed. The countries joining the chorus of those refusing more troops to Afghanistan are Australia, Germany, and Canada. While Australia believes that it has already made substantial contribution to the NATO troops- about 1,000- and is only ready to send a small team of military trainers to Afghanistan. Germany has followed suit by refusing to increase the number of troops currently about 3,300 in Afghanistan. Germany has also ruled out the possibility of shifting their soldiers from the North to Southern Afghanistan. Canada has gone to the extent of threatening to withdraw from the combat role in Afghanistan unless more troops are injected into the force fighting in the South.
American officials have recently embarked upon a passionate campaign to put pressure on NATO member countries to do more for the war-shattered country. As the America cannot divert forces and resources from Iraq, it is trying to fill in the gaps in Afghanistan through NATO’s support which is not forthcoming. The US administration should not expect its allies to ignore the domestic factors when it pressurizes them to toe its line. These countries have their own domestic problems, unique systems of governance, and little motivation to fight in a far-off land, chiefly for an American cause. NATO has suffered a big number of casualties in Southern Province of Helmand due to which there is a little public support for the mission. Polls show that majority of Germans do not want their forces to be engaged in active war against the Taliban. In fact, only 29% Germans have supported continuing their country’s presence in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, only 24% Dutch have supported their Government’s decision to extend the mandate in Afghanistan through 2010. Similarly, most Canadians want their Government to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan before February 2009 when their mandate ends.
Most of the Europeans see no benefit in playing junior members in an alliance who serves primarily as an instrument of US power. Observers fear that the intense pressure on NATO countries for not doing enough in Afghanistan would not bring positive results. In fact, it would lead to the fragmentation of the alliance, which is seeing troops from some countries taking active part in battles with others sitting on the sidelines, only providing logistical and moral support. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned that the split cast a cloud over NATO’s future and risk creating a two-tiered alliance in which US will have some allies willing to fight and die to protect people’s security and others who are not.
Since many member countries said ‘no’ to send more troops, the US, Britain, and Dutch have to take the brunt of Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. In addition to that, the use of heavy weaponry resulted in civilian deaths that gave the Taliban the much-needed local support in the shape of fresh recruits. NATO-led ISAF is facing an imminent failure in taking control of command and operations. Its inefficiency in achieving the avowed mission of stabilizing, securing, and reconstructing the war-torn Afghanistan has made the situation from bad to worse. There is no, and cannot be any better evidence of its failure in Afghanistan than the rise of Taliban insurgency, emergence of Afghanistan as a narcotics state, and the persistence of hodgepodge of fiefdoms run by warlords.
Initially, many Afghans were hopeful that NATO would soon be able to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan, but with no notable successes in such a long period, the attitudes are radically changing. The inability of NATO-led ISAF and absence of social and economic progress has disappointed many Afghans and they are loosing confidence in the foreign forces and consider NATO as an ‘occupation force’ with an expansionist regional agenda. The report by ‘Oxfam’ published in ‘The Guardian’ states that, “Despite all efforts of NATO, aid agencies, and Afghans, Afghanistan is sliding away from progress towards calamity”. All these reports echo a growing realization that reconstructing and stabilizing Afghanistan on West’s terms is not foreseeable and NATO-led ISAF is failing in Afghanistan because it has neither won hearts and minds nor contributed to the rebuilding of a country in any meaningful way. However, Pakistan is always being blamed by Western and Afghan officials for making the situation harder in Afghanistan. What they have failed to understand is that Pakistan is doing all it can to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan. It is incumbent on NATO-led ISAF to reconcile with the ground realities by adopting a new, effective and comprehensive strategy otherwise NATO’s credibility is at stake and ‘failed Afghanistan’ would become a swamp swallowing the whole region.




Post-election scenario & security challengesm
Faryal Leghari

THE suicide attack in Rawalpindi on Feb 25 that killed Pakistan army’s surgeon-general Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig and eight others is reported to have been carried out by the tribal militants in retaliation to the military operations in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Baig’s assassination confirms the fact that the militants are committed to waging more such attacks targeting the Pakistan military to deter them from operations against the Taleban and allies in the tribal areas and from their ‘pursuit and persecution’ policy in collaboration with the United States. Baitullah Mehsud has already indicated that he is ready to talk with the new government and hopes it would not pursue policies similar to those undertaken by President Musharraf. The latest attack could also be seen as a leverage tactic to influence future policies in the tribal belt. The political scene since the Feb 18 election remains amorphous and it is possible that there will be a power-sharing arrangement between the two bigger parties, Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), led by Asif Zardari, and Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N. In such a case, this is likely to lead to a power struggle between the government and the presidency. In case President Musharraf does not resign, he is likely to face impeachment, a point that Mr Sharif has reiterated since the election. The next few weeks will be significant as political developments in Pakistan evolve to provide a clearer picture. It is most likely that PPP will be at the centre of efforts to form a new government. Musharraf, in an increasingly cornered position, could either step up efforts to work with the PPP, resign or face impeachment.
In a striking development, the people have rejected religious parties especially those that have aired and practised extremist ideology. The Mutahida Majlis e Amal (MMA), the bloc of religious parties which had gained major victory in the 2002 elections buoyed by anti-American sentiment after the US strikes in Afghanistan, was displaced by the secular Awami National Party (ANP) in the Frontier province. The MMA provincial government’s Taleban-like activities — for example, banning films and billboards advertisements showing women — besides its ineptitude in controlling anti-state extremist elements that terrorise citizens and use violent methods to extend their influence undermined their popularity. The rogue religious extremists who were terrorising the local people and enforcing Shariah are supported by the militants in the tribal areas and have links with the Taleban and Al Qaeda. The Al Qaeda and its floating reservoir of extremist organisations in Pakistan have been periodically targeting the country’s political and military leadership over the past few years.

—Khaleej Times