BEIJING, Feb. 28 -- Growth in the number of former farmers pursuing non-agricultural work has slowed as more people are reluctant to leave their homeland, official data showed on Saturday.

China had 274 million farmer-turned-laborers as of the end of 2014, and 168 million of them had moved to cities as migrant workers, according to data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

However, the growth in the number of total workers and migrant workers slowed to 1.9 and 1.3 percent in 2014, respectively, from 2.4 percent and 1.7 percent the previous year.

China is the world's largest agricultural country in terms of farming population.

But farmers' willingness to grow crops has waned as returns from the land are typically much smaller than working in cities, posing threats to the country's food security. The trend is slowing thanks to the government's efforts to boost agricultural production.