(1) The Government places a great emphasis on protection of domestic food production in its policies regarding production, imports and exports. This can be understood from the report "Food Problems in China" issued by the Government.
(2) Domestic farm products and especially the food market system will continue to be improved by reforms, so that they will more powerfully promote increases in production of price-elastic foods.
(3) Chinese food production still has substantial potential power for growth. The potential power will become real should the necessary conditions regarding capital, technology, labor input, government policies, and systems be satisfied.
Many experts and researches by national research organizations (e.g., Lin Yifu, 1995; Li Yueyun, 1996) maintain that improvement in productivity per unit area, as a major factor, will make possible an increase in China's food production, on condition that food production policies and changes of system (e.g., to contracted operations) are basically stable. According to the June 1996 survey of the land-utilization situation nationwide, the country's farmland area actually used is 133 million hectares. This gives about 3,000kgs per hectare of Chinese food production, which is far behind the production level in agriculturally-developed countries. There are also considerable differences in yields per unit area between the various provinces of the country, denoting the potential for further improvement. To improve unit-area productivity, China has taken the following measures： (1) increase of irrigation works; (2) improvement of multiple-cropping indices; (3) enrichment of low-productivity farmlands; and (4), progress in agricultural science and technology.
Two thirds of the existing farmland area in China is of low productivity, production per hectare being 2 to 3 tons lower than that in high-productivity farmlands under the same climatic conditions. The Government plans a total of 32 million hectares (14 million hectares of which come within the Ninth Five Year Plan period) of enrichment of farmlands nationwide in the ten or more years to the early 21st century.
