CHINA’S agriculture sector needs to undertake supply-side reform, especially in corn production, given bumper harvests and surplus grain stockpiles, Agriculture Minister Han Changfu said yesterday.

Han told a news conference in Beijing that China will no longer pursue increased grain output over the next five years, after 12 consecutive years of increasing harvests.

Grain surpluses cause problems and put a financial burden on the government, which is obliged to stockpile crops at artificially high prices to support farm incomes, he said, although having too much grain was preferable to shortages.

While output itself would not be raised, China would continue to work on boosting production capacity in the coming years in order to avoid the risk of shortages in case demand were to increase, Han said.

China could not relax when it came to food supplies, he said, with urbanization changing the country’s eating habits and its population set to rise further following the relaxation of the nation’s “one-child policy.”

The government buys large amounts of China’s crops at fixed prices in order to maintain rural incomes, and bumper harvests have put the country’s storage capacity under pressure.

High fixed prices have also opened up a price gap with international markets that has boosted demand for cheap imports despite the domestic plenty.

Raising farmer incomes will still be a priority over the coming five years, Han said, although with grain prices unlikely to rise, China must focus on agricultural industrialization, improving technology and cutting costs.(SD-Agencies)