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Increased Productive Forces Leaves Room for Agricultural Restructuring in China
Consecutive four years of grain harvest has allowed China to reduce grain acreage to restructure the country's agriculture.
About three million hectares of farmland will be turned into forest and pasture to protect environment in western China.
Besides, the government recalled the policy of purchasing agricultural products of low quality at protective prices.
More attention should be paid to improving agricultural restructuring and rural economy structure and to developing quality and high-efficient agriculture, at a time when there is enough grain storage, experts suggest.
During the first four years of the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000), China produced 504.85 million tons of grain annually. The composite agricultural productive forces have remained stable above 500 million tons.
According to Xu Xiaoqing, an official of State Development Planning Commission, 480 million tons of grain can meet domestic demand. Agricultural products' supply and demand have moved from insufficiency into a new phase of balance and surplus.
To adapt to the market change, the government began to restructure the nation's agriculture. As a result, the ratio of grain acreage to crops area dropped from 73 percent in 1995, the last year of the Eighth Five-Year Plan, to 72 percent in 1999, while area sown to cash crops and forage increased considerably.
Crop production except cotton dropped during the Ninth Five-Year period, and the annual production of grain, oil, sugar, meat, aquaculture products has increased compared with that in the Eighth Five-Year period, according to latest statistics.
Meanwhile per capita farm produce has been on the rise, with grain growing from 387 kilograms in 1995 to 406 kilograms in 1999, and consumption of meat, eggs and aquaculture products climbing above the world's average level.
According to the official, during the Ninth Five-Year period, China's agriculture and rural economy have remained healthy despite difficulties and challenges.
In the first four years, the primary industry contributed 1,420.5 billion yuan in added value annually to GDP.
The official attributed the achievements to the Ninth Five-Year plan, which places top importance on agriculture, and increased investment for infrastructure to push forward agricultural reform.
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