China is to invest in 3 million hectares of Ukrainian farmland, a media report said Sunday, which would make Ukraine China's largest overseas farming centre as it strives to keep pace with rising food demand.

China's official Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) has signed an agreement with Ukrainian agricultural firm KSG Agro, which would see Ukraine provide 100,000 hectares to China. That would eventually rise to 3 million hectares, the South China Morning Post report said.

Chinese experts have said China must expand its overseas farming to ensure sufficient food supplies because of  limited land and low productivity.

China accounts for a fifth of the world's population but only 9 percent of its land, and demand for food is rising as incomes increase.

In 2009, China had a total of just over 2 million hectares of farming land abroad, the newspaper said.

A spokesman at the XPCC said he was not aware of the statement and did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for confirmation of the report.

Reuters - Global Times