Society

Irrigation promises to cultivate bigger yields

By Zhou Siyu and Sun Ruisheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-29 07:58

TAIYUAN - High-efficiency irrigation that gets the most out of the water it uses could increase grain yields by 6,000 to 9,000 kilograms a hectare and is expected to be used on 51 million hectares of farmland by 2020, a top water resources official said on Monday.

Chen Lei, the minister of water resources, said at the National Rural Water Conservancy Work Conference in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, that the country's food production would be boosted by investing 5 billion yuan ($762 million) a year on expanding the use of the state-of-the-art irrigation. The first expansion will target 18 million hectares during the next five years.

Currently, half of China's farmland relies entirely on rainfall for its water supply, he said.

The lack of modern irrigation in rural areas poses challenges to the country's food security and future agricultural development, he said.

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"China is facing an irreversible trend of a growing population and a shrinking inventory of arable land along with scarce water resources," he said.

"The promotion of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation across the country will be one of the most important tasks for the ministry during the next few years."

The meeting came a few days after the State Council vowed to take all necessary measures to ensure the country enjoys its eighth-consecutive record grain harvest this year.

The government has long emphasized the need to domestically produce at least 90 percent of the grain its people consume, so China does not become too dependent on overseas suppliers.

While the country has had seven consecutive years of increased food production, it has also been importing more agricultural products.

"To further increase the country's agricultural production is a fundamental way of easing inflation expectation, stabilizing consumption, and maintaining steadily fast economic development," Chen said.

Wang Aiguo, director of the rural water resources department under the ministry, said the target for 2011 is to expand the area covered by high-efficiency water-saving irrigation by 1.3 million hectares.

According to Wang, the ministry has set aside 40 billion yuan this year for constructing rural water conservancy projects.

"When constructing large-scale irrigation projects, wheat-growing areas hit by the drought this year and major food-growing areas will have priority," Wang said.

A severe drought has plagued China's main wheat-growing areas since October, leading to concern about the country's grain production and food security.

Agriculture experts and meteorologists have said the drought has had a limited impact on crop production and was eased by snow and rain in late February and early March, as well as by irrigation.

Water conservancy has emerged as a focus for the government during recent years.

This year's No 1 document of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which usually focuses on rural and agricultural policies, earmarked 4 trillion yuan for water conservation during the next decade.