China will use modern agricultural techniques to boost grain output and preserve the nation's food security since industrialization and urbanization will make it difficult to increase the amount of land under cultivation, the vice-minister of Agriculture said yesterday.

Vice-Minister Yin Chengjie said that though protecting arable land remains a priority, it may be difficult to preserve the base-line of 120 million hectares of arable land for grain cultivation.

He made these comments at a forum on building a new socialist countryside yesterday in Beijing. The forum presented a progress report on the effort to build a new countryside in 2006. It also provided explanations of how the program would work.

"For the next few years, China will count on advanced technology to increase grain output per unit of arable land, thereby increasing total grain output," he said.

He said it would be nearly impossible to raise grain output by expanding the amount of land under cultivation because each year an average of 330,000 hectares of arable land is lost to industrialization and urbanization.

China will also do more to support the growth of paddy field and optimize its existing agriculture structure, he said.

The country's grain output hit 490 million tons last year, which was enough to meet demand. But there have been shortages in the rice supply in recent years, he said.

The shortage occurred after the acreage under cultivation for rice, especially in coastal areas, dropped to a record low in 2002 and 2003.

To address the shortage, the ministry set forth a series of policies at the end of 2003 that included fixed prices for rice purchases. The policies have worked and aroused farmers' enthusiasm for growing paddy rice. Paddy rice production has expanded quickly ever since, he said.

In addition, the ministry has also decided to make better use of agricultural by-products.

China is now in the middle of transforming its agriculture industry from a traditional one to a modern one, he said.

Rural areas have been developing fast since the country started opening itself up. Traditional and modern agricultural technology co-exist in China.

Developing modern agriculture is regarded as a key part of the effort to build a new countryside.

(China Daily 01/24/2007 page3)