Land reform
Aquaculture in China is being squeezed by many factors. The country’s authorities have cracked down as the country tries to repair its environment and improve food safety, including the safety of farmed seafood. The loss of rural labor as a result of urbanization has also hurt the sector. China’s rural population is in the midst of an enormous turnover – by 2030, demographic trends show that young people between the ages of 15 to 24 will have the largest decrease in population in China’s rural areas, while the largest increase will be in the 60 to 69 age category. That means a lot less working age people.
But perhaps the most important factor for Chinese aquaculture is the government’s stop-start progress on land reform, which is preventing consolidation of production of agriculture and aquaculture. The national government officially owns all land in China, but it recently promised to allow the trading of individual land rights. However, the pace of its implementation of this reform has been slow, as government remains divided on whether to liberalize land ownership, fearing this will dilute the power of the state and rights of peasants.
The latest reform allows village governments to transfer land in return for yearly rent payments. But this keeps will continue to make expansion of large-scale aquaculture farms dependent on the whim of local government. As with many contradictions inherent in Chinese policy-making, government wants to urbanize peasants but also wants the safety valve of land to which peasants can return in the case of an economic downturn.
Most likely outcome: Aquaculture production in China will most definitely fall as the country continues its land and environmental reforms.
