Rural development remains a top priority

Efforts will be intensified to accelerate the country's agricultural modernization and enhance developmental vitality in the sector, a central policy document said.

China will set up a system to ensure the effective supply of important agricultural products, increase farmers' income and improve their livelihoods, as well as push forward reforms in rural areas, according to this year's No 1 document issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Thursday.

Central authorities regularly release major policy documents at the beginning of each year to address government priorities.

This is the 10th consecutive year that the theme of the first document has been rural issues.

China is facing several challenges in agricultural development, including rising production costs and structural barriers between supply and demand of agricultural products, due to the country's fast industrialization and urbanization, the document said.

The preferential policy will support more professional investors, family farms and rural cooperatives to be engaged in farm production, it said.

China recorded grain output of more than 589 million metric tons in 2012. It was the ninth consecutive year of increased grain harvests, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, the country imported 2.32 million tons of rice last year, a 310 percent year-on-year increase and the peak volume since 2000, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

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