In a bid to ensure China's grain security, it is more vital to reserve grain production capacity than to stockpile grain, according to a senior Chinese industrial development official.

At the turn of autumn and winter 2003, China raised its food grain price for the first time since 1997. This did not necessarily mean that China encountered a grain security crisis, but was simply a reminder to adjust the government's current grain security policy, according to Ma Xiaohe, director of the Institute of Industrial Development under the State Development and Reform Commission.

Ma said Thursday it is the priority issue to reserve grain production capacity, which includes reserving enough arable cropland, improving farmland improvement projects and irrigation facilities, and boosting farmers' enthusiasm for planting crops.

China's arable cropland has shrunk by 667,000 hectares yearly over the past six to seven years, due to local governments requisitioning croplands to cash in on a nationwide real estate and development boom.

The Ministry of Land and Resources disclosed that some 168,000 cases of illegal land requisition were reported in 2003.

Therefore, China plans to enact legislation to bring farmland under rigid control, and promote the reform of the government's land requisition and management mechanism.

Although China, which has to feed one fifth of the world's population on seven percent of the world's arable land, will not encounter any food security problems in the next two or three years, it nevertheless has hidden risks, as rapid economic growth eats away at arable land, Ma acknowledged.

The country's grain output dipped from a record high of 512 million tons in 1998 to 435 million tons in 2003.

China's agricultural infrastructure facilities have become outdated and of inferior quality. Nowadays, two-thirds of the country's irrigation facilities are badly run. It is estimated that the country's grain output shrinks by anywhere from 10 to 15 million tons annually because of the inefficiency of existing water conservancy works.

The Chinese government has pledged to boost its investment in updating agricultural infrastructure and research into agricultural technologies.

The government will also strive to reduce or cancel agricultural taxes, in an effort to further enthuse farmers to plant cereal crops.

Ma said that previously, the Chinese government set a goal of 95 to 100 percent of the country's grain consumption to be self-supplied, which required a very high economic cost to stockpile grain.

Chinese experts nowadays suggest that it is more economical to self-supply approximately 90 percent of food grain consumption and import the remaining 10 percent while setting aside 20 percent of the country's actual grain reserve as the means of regulation.

China's grain stockpile reached up to a record 300 million tons in 1998, so that grain supply exceeded demand and posed an economic burden for the government then.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2004)