"The Ministry of Agriculture will also clear up seeds producers and sales agents and revoke the licenses of those unqualified. Meanwhile, we will join hands with the State Administration for Commerce and Industry to purify rampant seed advertisements."

Steady yield

For the first time since 1985, China recorded high grain yields in 2007 for the fourth consecutive year.

However, grain prices have continuously climbed in defiance of the high yields. In 2007, the comprehensive production price of wheat, rice, corn and soybeans soared 12 percent over the previous year and the retail price of grain edged up around 6.5 percent.

Rising grain prices were a major factor driving up consumer prices in 2007. Worse still, the biggest blizzard in 50 years took a serious toll on winter crops. By January 29, low and freezing temperatures had damaged 105 million mu (7 million hectares) of crops, of which 11.31 million mu (754,000 hectares) of crops were wiped out. According to Wang, rapeseed, vegetables, oranges and wheat were the most affected crops.

Stable grain production is of vital importance to the mitigation of inflationary pressures in 2008. "We'll stay on alert and spare no effort to halt the decline of grain yields to ensure a sustainable supply," added Wang.

Oil-bearing crops will be the focus of aid from the Ministry of Agriculture. The ministry has vowed to push through a revitalization plan of oil-bearing crop production in 2008, aimed at bringing the growing area back to 2006 levels to reap a total yield of 47 million tons.

Chinese vegetable oil-processing enterprises have been plagued by a strained supply of raw materials due to the shrinkage of oil-bearing crop production areas in 2007. As a result, the price of vegetable oil rose substantially in the year.

"There are large soybean production bases in north China and winter rapeseed production bases in the Yangtze River valley," noted Wang. "We hope to further tap the production potential of oil-bearing crops."

Related

The Advice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Improving Rural Infrastructure Construction and Promoting Further Development of Agriculture and Income Growth of Farmers runs eight chapters and 43 articles, summarized in the following four parts:

Part 1: More efforts should be made to coordinate rural and urban development and address the three issues concerning agriculture, farmers and rural areas. On a smaller scale, in 2008, the Central Government will pump heavier investment into rural infrastructure. The allocation of revenues from land occupation taxes and urban maintenance fees will be adjusted. The local counterpart fund of charity and ecological projects in state-level poverty-stricken counties also faces changes in its proportions.

Part 2: Policies that support and benefit agriculture will be further improved and solidified, with the aim of realizing increases in direct subsidies for cereal crops, subsidies to improve crop strains, subsidies to purchase farm machinery, and comprehensive subsidies to cover the price of agricultural production materials. Beside this, intensified efforts will be made to explore a mechanism integrating economic and social development in both urban and rural areas.

Part 3: Importance is attached to improving basic public services for agricultural production and rural lives. Especially, attention will be paid to offering farmers technological services and social services in operation and circulation of agricultural products, as well as information services. A mature rural market should be fostered and all kinds of rural specialists cultivated. A set of rural systems needs promotion, including the rural compulsory education system, the new rural cooperative medicare system and the rural minimum living allowance system.

Part 4: Continuous efforts will be made to push forward rural institutional and organizational development, with focus laid on deepening a set of rural reforms, such as the reform of township organization, rural fiscal management system reform, rural financial system reform and the reform of the collective forest right system.