Approximately 80 percent of China's agricultural products are sold freely on the market following more than two decades of reforms and opening-up, said Zhang Baowen, vice-minister of agriculture.

Zhang made the comments on Thursday during an ongoing agricultural forum in Xi'an, the Yangling Chinese Agricultural High-tech Forum.

China's agriculture and rural economy had undergone major, unprecedented changes during the later half of 1990s, said Zhang, and as a result, market forces have replaced planning as the guiding force for the growth of the agricultural sector.

Statistics show China's gross grain output soared to 500 million tons in 1999 from 300 million tons in 1978, an increase of over 2.6 percent year-on-year. This growth rate is about one percent higher than the population growth rate during the same period.

Zhang noted that, as the Chinese standard of living improves, citizens may begin to demand better and still more diversified farm products, and thus China's agriculture sector and rural economy should continue the task of advancing the strategic restructuring.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2002)