December 29, 2005

China's grain output to rise on farming technology advancement
 

China's total grain harvest for 2005 is expected to reach a record 484 million tonnes, state media reported Thursday, as rising yields make up for losses of land to erosion and construction.

The bumper grain crop, up 3 percent from last year's record harvest of 469.5 million tonnes, was largely attributed to improved technology, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported.

Average yield a hectare hit a record 4.6 tonnes, the report said.

"The high growth of grain production...shows that the increase of China's grain production has shifted from the expansion of planting area to the advancement of farming technology," it cited China's Agriculture Minister Du Qinglin as saying.

Du reported that average income for farmers was forecast to hit RMB3,250 this year, up 6 percent from the year before.

Authorities - anxious to ensure the country's basic self-sufficiency in staple foods - have begun abolishing farm taxes and enacting other measures to encourage farmers to continue growing grain.

Some 4.4 million farmers leave their fields each year to find other work, Xinhua News Agency said, putting the rural migrant population at 108 million in 2005.

The country must increasingly rely on technology, rather than expanding cultivation, to boost harvests. Although its 1.3 billion people form about a quarter of the world's population, the country has only 6 percent of the world's arable land.

In 2004, 2.5 million hectares, or about 2 percent of China's total arable land, were lost to construction, according to earlier reports. Widespread erosion and pollution accentuated the problem.