The United Nations has ended its food aid to China since the beginning of 2006. The UN World Food Program (WFP) made the decision at the end of 2005. The reason is that the Chinese government has made great achievements in poverty alleviation and no longer needs UN's help.

The news shows China has not only put an end to its 26-year history of receiving food aid, but also become one of the strong donor countries in the world.

With less than 10 percent of the world's farmland, China has managed to feed over 20 percent of the world's population. Since reform and opening up over two decades ago, the number of poor people in China has reduced from 250 million to today's 26.1 million, accounting for 70 percent of the world's total poverty alleviation number at the same period. Over the past five years, the world's poor population increased by 300 million, but China slashed its number of people living in absolute poverty by 6 million from 2001 to 2004.

Over the past 25 years, China contributed more than 20 percent of the world's agricultural products growth, its annual grain output reached from 300 million to 500 million tons, striking a balanced overall supply and even a surplus in years of bumper harvest.

China's success in grain production and poverty alleviation has not only answered the question "Who will feed China?" put forward by Lester. R. Brown, an American agricultural and environmental expert 11 years ago, but also won the commend from the resident mission of the United Nations Development Program in Beijing, who said that China's contribution to the Millennium Development Goals should be highly praised. At the same time, it also turned the so-called "China threat" into a farce.

China has made great efforts and invested a lot of resources in poverty alleviation. From the system perspective, China follows a pattern of stressing both governmental leadership and social participation, with initiatives designed to help the poor feed themselves. To protect farmers' enthusiasm in grain production, the government has cut and abolished all kinds of taxes and fees including agricultural tax while stabilizing grain prices and stopping the writing of IOUs to farmers. To cover losses in local finance, large amounts of transfer payment were made from the central budget.

China has also given three kinds of subsidies to encourage grain production: direct subsidy to grain growers, good-seed subsidy to major grain producing areas and subsidy to buyers of farming machines. In addition, agricultural experts also contributed a lot to China's food production. One of the best examples is the renowned "Father of Hybrid Rice"-Yuan Longping. At present, China's annual planting area of hybrid rice is about 230 million mu or 15.3 million hectares, with an annual growth of over 20 billion kilograms.

However, one should keep sober-minded at remaining questions and difficulties. On the one hand, China still has 26.1 million people living without adequate food and clothing. On the other hand, the nation's nearly 50 million people who just shook off poverty are weak for sustained development. What's more, the contradiction between too many people and too little land will remain for a long time. Farmland keeps on shrinking largely due to the occupation by local authorities for other purposes. As a result, social problems, such as the livelihood of farmers deprived of land are standing out. Other problems including frequent natural disasters, pollution, widening gap between the rich and the poor also add difficulty to China's journey towards a well-off society.

Now thousands of millions of rural residents as well as the whole world are expecting China to challenge itself to further reduce poverty and increase farmers' income. With a population of 1.3 billion, simply by focusing on providing a better life for its own people, China will contribute tremendously to the "global village".

This comment by People's Daily senior editor Jiang Yuanming is carried on the front page of People's Daily Overseas Edition, Jan.3, and is translated by People's Daily Online.