China plans to utilize irrigation methods to help the nation's sustainable development, China Daily reports.

Wang Shucheng, minister of water resources, said that various water-saving methods would be implemented throughout China in the 21st century.

The irrigation plan is one of the three targets which top the agenda of China's water conservancy project, he added.

The central government will continue its efforts to improve China's existing drought-prevention and flood-control as a basis for sustainable development of agriculture in the years ahead.

Droughts and floods have been the primary water-related calamities plaguing the country's agriculture.

"Only by strengthening agriculture's capability of withstanding droughts and floods can China improve the infrastructure and economic efficiency of farming," Wang was quoted as saying.

By 2030, China will bring 60 million hectares of farmland into irrigation with more than 70 percent of the land using several methods of water-efficient irrigation, according to a report released by the Ministry of Water Resources yesterday.

By then, China must yield 640 million kg of grain to feed an estimated 1.6 billion population by developing high-yielding and efficient agriculture.

"The fundamental way out for China's water-consuming agriculture, especially grain-growing, lies in the modernization of irrigation featuring a variety of water-efficient approaches," Wang said.