A farmer uses his phone as he monitors newly harvested wheat being loaded to his truck in Tangtou Township, Sinan County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 13, 2020. Photo:Xinhua

China to produce more than 1.3 trillion jin (650 million tons) of grain in 2021 said the newly appointed minister of agriculture and rural affairs Tang Renjian. Grain-related hot topics including seed bank construction and area expansion of cultivated land were also discussed at an event held by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences CAAS on Sunday, reported by Xinhua News Agency. 

Tang noted that the plan for 2021 grain production is related to three aspects. The first is to maintain the supply of rice and wheat, two staple crops for Chinese people, by maintaining the cultivated land area on the basis of 2020 in the south of China, and recovering the cultivated area for wheat in northwest China and north China. 

Maintaining the production of soybean and keeping the cultivated area for soybean over 140 million mu will basically enable the country to be self-sufficient in soybean supply and demand. 

The new year is the opening year of China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the year will also mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party CPC in July, so the production of grain is of significance, said Tang. 

Tang argued that seeds can be seen as "semiconductor chips" for agricultural development, and keeping the cultivated land is the lifeline of agriculture, which are two pivotal components to secure China's grain output and feed 1.4 billion people. 

Tang visited the seed bank managed by CAAS, which stores more than 400,000 germplasm resources. The new seed bank is under construction and its capacity will reach 1.5 million variants, becoming the largest seed bank in the world.

"Some familiar rice breeds such as Jingxi rice and Tianjin Xiaozhan rice will all be kept in the seed bank for further research and development," said Tang. 

Tang said as China feeds 20 percent of the world's population with 9 percent of the world's cultivated land, so the land must be well protected. Tang stressed that the area of China's cultivated land should be kept above 1.8 billion mu. Additionally, cultivated land of high quality crops needs to be extended.