(Photo/Xinhua)

China’s annual output of grain increased from 113 billion kilograms (kg) in 1949 to about 658 billion kilograms in 2018, up more than 500 billion kilograms, Science and Technology Daily reported Monday.

China’s grain production per mu was 68.6 kg in 1949, when the country only had 13 combine-harvesters and tractors' total power was 73,500 kilowatts (kW).

By 2018, China’s grain output per mu (1 mu is 667 square meters) rose to 374.7 kg, up more than four times the output in 1949. Besides, China’s total power of agricultural machinery reached around 1 billion kW, and its total number of combine-harvesters hit 2.1 million in 2018. Meanwhile, the country owned about 22.4 million tractors last year, of which 6.7 million were large and medium-sized.

Moreover, China’s per capita grain amount rose from 209 kg in 1949 to over 470 kg in 2018, higher than the world average.

It was a hard-earned result, given that the population of China had more than doubled since 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded, said an executive with the planting management department of China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

China’s capacity for agriculture-related scientific and technological innovation, achievements transformation, and technology popularization has continuously improved, with the rate of contribution of scientific and technological progress to agricultural growth rising to 58.3 percent last year, according to the executive.

“Today, the overall rate of mechanization in China’s crop cultivation and harvesting has exceeded 68 percent, with wheat production realizing almost 100 percent mechanization. The cultivation and harvesting of corn and rice has also seen a mechanization rate of over 80 percent,” said the executive.