中国在粮食生产方面取得进展

Food shortages and famine are still a major concern in many parts of the world. China is the second biggest food producer in the world and the biggest consumer, making food security a great challenge. CCTV reporter Liao Ruochen takes us to look at the progress made in the country's food production in the past few years.

Rice is the primary source of food for China. And speaking of rice, there is a name known to almost all Chinese people: Yuan Longping. Back in late 1970s, his work brought revolutionary changes to rice production of China. Now, in the 82nd year of his life, his work is still quietly changing our world and our daily food.

Yuan Longping, director of Nat'l Hybrid Rice Research and Dev't Center,said,"China's population will soon reach 1.5 billion, and arable land per capita is only 800 sqaure meters. But I think we are ready for this challenge, an average person consumes about 360 kilograms of rice each year. In subtropical southern China, we have successfully produced this amount using only 200 square meters, and in middle China along the Yangtze River, we achieved that by using 300 square meters."

And his achievements are not limited to China. The results of his research may bring us one step closer to eliminating hunger in the world.

Yuan Longping said, "In northern Vietnam, our super hybrid rice increased production by almost 30%. The region used to be in shortage of food, now it is the second largest rice exporter in the world, just after Thailand. The world has around 13 billion hectares of arable land. If half of it can be planted with super hybrid rice, then we can sustain another 500 million people."

Finding the right grain sample is difficult and time-consuming work, but one small step of progress here at the research center is one huge step for agriculture as a whole.

It's hard to believe that this small stalk of grain has the power to change the world, but if we can put just one more gram onto each stalk, it would make a huge difference.

But good specimen alone is not enough for a good harvest. In the agricultural center in Hunan province, the local government is taking other initiatives to complement the achievements of the research center.

Huang Yunxin, director of Changde Agriculture Bureau, Hunan,said, "Besides adopting the improved hybrid rice, we used centralized seedling cultivation in greenhouses to maximize production, our experts monitored the temperature and humidity to improve growing of the seedlings."

Cheng Fangshan, director of Adminstration of Grain, Taoyuan County,said, "This year we set the minimum price of grain to 135 yuan per 50 kilogram bag. That's 18 yuan higher than last year. This is to reduce the market risk for farmers, so they will continue to grow rice instead of other crops that bring higher profits."

Food security is not the mission of a single country. It is the most fundamental part of sustainable development. The world's increasing population will require even more food in the future. The task ahead is still not easy.