SHANGHAI, Feb 3 (Reuters) - China will boost the development of high-yielding crop varieties to raise production, state media reported on Saturday, citing a key rural policy document, as Beijing pushes for greater use of bio-technology and mechanisation in its food security measures.
The world's largest grains importer reported a record corn crop last year and bumper harvests of other grains, but Beijing continues to strive for greater output and lower imports, particularly amid rising tensions with some trade partners, climate-related disasters and military conflicts.
In its annual rural policy blueprint, known as the "No. 1 document", the State Council, China's cabinet, said it will stabilize its grain planting area and implement grain yield improvement projects with good seeds, machines and fields, state news agency Xinhua reported.
It said it will “vigorously implement” actions to increase the use of agricultural machinery and equipment by improving the subsidy policy for the purchase and use of machines.
It added that it will consolidate the results of the expansion of soybean planting and support the development of high-oil, high-yield varieties. It will also expand the planting of oilseed crops including rapeseed and camelia, it said.
China has in recent months approved the production and sale of genetically modified soybeans and corn seeds, paving the way for commercial planting of GM crops this year.
The policy said it will increase seed research and accelerate the selection, breeding and promotion of good varieties that are urgently needed for planting.
China, whose
population
of 1.4 billion is shrinking, also said in the policy that it will “focus on solving the problem of who will farm the land”.
The farming population in the world's second-largest economy has been aging as young people move to the city, raising concerns about a labour shortfall.
The policy set a goal of building a modern agricultural management system with smallholder farmers at its core.
It outlined plans to develop and modernize the countryside and farming practices, by reintroducing the "Ten Million Project" initiated in 2003 by President Xi Jinping, who was then a governor in Zhejiang province.
"The project seeks to revamp entire villages and connect numerous villages into a network encompassing fields, infrastructure, and industry chains," the Sino-German Agricultural Centre said in a note.
Additionally, the policy document said it will raise the minimum purchase price of wheat, expand planting insurance and subsidies, and deepen agricultural cooperation along the Belt and Road Initiative. (Reporting by Mei Mei Chu and Engen Tham; Editing by William Mallard, David Holmes and Giles Elgood)
