China moves to secure future grain supply
Updated
China's premier, Wen Jiabao, says the country faces serious challenges in ensuring it will have enough grain to feed its population in the decades to come.
Premier Wen says China's grain supply and demand are balanced now, but the situation is expected to worsen in the long term.
On the website of State Council, Premier Wen is quoted as telling a cabinet meeting that shrinking arable land, water shortage and climate change is an increasing constraint on output.
The meeting approved a grain security plan that aims to keep the nation's annual grain output above 500 million tonnes by 2010 and increase production to more than 540 million tonnes a year by 2020.
The statement reiterated that China will mainly rely on itself to feed its population of more than 1.3 billion people - the world's largest - and will be 95 per cent self-sufficient in grain supply.
