China to develop high-standard farmland to ensure output

China is to develop 800 million mu (53.3 million hectares) of drought and flood resistant farmland by 2020 in an effort to ensure output, agriculture minister Han Changfu has disclosed.

Restrained by land and water resources, China should rely on technology and new varieties of seed to extract maximum yields, Han emphasized at a training session on grain output.

With shrinking arable land and widespread land pollution, ensuring output to meet the demands of over a billion people is a very high priority.

A red line guarantees that arable land shall never shrink to less than 120 million hectares, and in 2013, grain output increased by 2.1 percent to hit more than 600 million tons, the 10th straight year of increased production.

Earlier this month, Han said China is poised for a record bumper harvest this summer.