A farmer operates agricultural machinery to harvest wheat in Fuyang, East China's Anhui Province on Monday. As summer harvest season arrives, farmers in Fuyang are stepping up efforts to bring in the crops. Photo: cnsphoto

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Thursday issued a development outline for China's food-crop farming sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), which sets multiple production goals for grain crops. 

The outline stressed the target for annual grain output by the end of the plan period, which it said should stabilize at more than 1.3 trillion jin (650 million tons), and the nation should try to surpass the milestone of 1.4 trillion jin.

Experts suggested that the outline reaffirms the importance of food security among China's basic development goals in 2022, and it seeks improvement while keeping performance stable. 

Jiao Shanwei, editor-in-chief of industry news website cngrain.com, told the Global Times on Thursday that the benchmark of 1.3 trillion jin was set by China's agriculture supervisors by referencing the country's average grain output in recent years. Production at this level can balance demand and supply.

However, the outline pointed out multiple challenges, especially the shrinking cultivated area. According to the outline, China's national cultivated land area in 2019 was 1.918 billion mu (127.87 million hectares), 113 million mu lower than 10 years earlier. 

"China's cultivated land area in 2020 saw a smaller decrease than in 2019, but administrators are carrying out support policies to improve yields in order to match the country's massive grain demand," said Jiao.

Jiao stated that China's agriculture officials are pushing forward the formation of high-quality farm land in some major grain-producing provinces, which may help the national agriculture system to achieve its goals despite limited land resources. 

According to the outline, China vowed to preserve the nation's sowing land area at more than 1.75 billion mu by 2025, with 800 million mu of rice and wheat planting area to ensure overall grain output.

"Aside from offering support policies for the agriculture industry and advanced farming facilities, the authorities are also making efforts to collect and protect valuable seeds to secure China's food security," said Jiao.