Ma also said cheap imports are likely to push down domestic grain prices while greatly adding to the country's stockpiles, which is likely to lead to a waste of grain in processing and storage.
Also, the import volume of soybeans from this January to October was 48.34 million tons in China, a 16.6 percent year-on-year increase during the first 10 months of this year, Customs statistics showed.
The total import of soybeans is expected to reach more than 60 million tons in 2012 because of favorable prices in the international market, Bi said.
But China will certainly satisfy more than 40 percent of its demand for oil crops by itself, he said.
China recorded a grain output of more than 589 million tons in 2012. It was the ninth consecutive year of increased grain harvests, according to the ministry.
From 2004 to 2012, the total grain output rose by more than 158 million tons, of which nearly 60 percent came from the improved yield on corn, it said.
Also, about 88 percent of the increase in grain output over those nine years came from the country's 13 major grain-producing regions. For instance, an increase in grain output in Northeast China, where industrialized agriculture produces high yields, accounted for nearly 40 percent of the country's increase in grain output during that period, according to the ministry.
The increase in grain output relying on the expansion of arable land is quite limited in the future because of the country's rapid urbanization, Bi said.
"So more advanced agricultural technology input is needed to improve grain yields per unit," he said.
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