June 17, 2011

China's annual demand for grain and cotton will keep growing with the increase of population in the future, with the annual grain demand growth exceeding 1%, said Ke Bingsheng, president of China Agricultural University.

China will thus face a fierce challenge in ensuring the supply of grain, cotton and other farm produces, mostly because country's cultivated land has no possibility to have a big increase due to industrialisation and urbanisation, Ke noted.

The agricultural expert also pointed out the only way to solve this problem is to improve the productivity of the land and the utilisation efficiency of water resources.

In the past three decades, China has made huge progress in the agricultural production, with grain output growing 80%, and cotton output tripling, and output of other farm produces also having a big increase.

However, China remains a net importer of farm produces, Ke said.

Last year China suffered a deficit of US$20 billion in the trade of agricultural products and food, and if excluding the trade of aquatic products, the deficit hit as high as US$30 billion, and it shows signs of widening, according to Ke.