The government is working on a plan to boost the country's annual grain output by 10 percent by 2020, an industry expert said on Thursday.

Song Tingming, vice chairman of the China National Association of Grain Sector told China Daily that the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture are drafting the plan to boost output by 50 million tons a year to 550 million tons within the next 12 years.

The total is 20 million tons higher than the target set in a national grain production plan approved last month by the State Council.

The new plan aims to "fully explore the potential capacity of major production provinces, and takes into account the rising population", which the government will try to keep within 1.45 billion by 2020, Song said.

It will supersede the general goals for major provinces and provide detailed goals for them, he said.

If successful, the plan will greatly ease the "tight balance" the country has been maintaining in the face of soaring demand, he said.

Several provinces, including Jilin, Heilongjiang and Henan, have already drafted their own plans for grain production over the next few years, Song said.

Jilin will seek to increase its corn production, Henan its grain production, and Heilongjiang its rice and soybeans, he said.

But the goal of achieving an additional 50 million tons will be "hard to realize" given the increasing population, shrinking arable land bank and lack of water resources, Song said.

The central government will have to rely on upgrading about 670,000 hectares of low-to-medium yield farmland in northern China and improving the yields of existing land through bio-technological innovations, he said.

Jilin Governor Han Changfu told a press conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing yesterday that the province has already begun its program to increase grain output by more than 5 million tons to 30 million tons over the next five years.

The province will upgrade 1.33 million hectares of low- to medium-yield farmland and improve 2 million hectares of high-yield farmland, he said.

The national plan to increase output comes at a time of soaring global food prices, which put growing pressure on the world's most populous country, Song said.

Last year, China produced 501.5 million tons of grain, 15 million tons less than the total demand.

This year, however, the country could see its fifth consecutive bumper harvest of summer grain, the longest run since 1949, the Ministry of Agriculture has said.

(China Daily August 29, 2008)