China has successfully reversed the situation of declining acreage under grain crops over the past five years since 2000, said the Ministry of Agriculture.

China's acreage under grain crops was cut by 14.4 million hectares during the five years after 1998, when the country's acreage under grain crops reached 113 million hectares, the ministry said.

The figure hit a record low in 2003 when the acreage dropped to 99 million hectares.

The acreage under grain crops grew slightly in 2004 and it grew to about 10.4 million hectares last year, up 4.86 million hectares over 2003, thanks to the government's policy to support grain production.

The country's per-unit grain yield has hit a record high of 4.44 tons per hectare during the period from 2000 to 2005, up 25.5 kg over the pervious five years, said the ministry.

The ministry said the country's total grain output exceeded 480 billion kg in 2005, compared with 469.4 billion kg in 2004.

The total grain output in 2005 was 20 billion kg over the end of the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1995-2000), although the acreage under grain crops in 2005 was 4 million hectares less than the late 1990s.

Source: Xinhua