Governor rises to food challenge

Li Chengyu remembers clearly his biggest challenge when he took over the post of vice-governor of Henan province in 1992.

Historically known as the "Central State", where for millennia the Yellow River has nourished some of the oldest farms on Earth and spawned the earliest traces of the Chinese civilization, the province was fighting to keep its people, then numbering more than 90 million, properly fed.

Li, who was in charge of the province's agricultural development program from 1992-95, said, at that time, at least 10 million people every year were facing food shortages.