Reducing grain loss

China loses about 25 million tons of grains, nearly 5 percent of its agricultural output, a year because of poor storage. It means that produce from 6.6 million hectares of land is lost even before reaching the market. This is shocking.

If storage facilities and processing technologies can be upgraded to reduce the grain loss rate to, say, 3 percent of output, the average in developed countries, China could save about 10 million tons of grains a year. In other words, it would be an increase of about 2.7 million hectares of arable land, considering that per hectare output is 3,700 kilograms.

In a country with nearly one-fifth of the world's population and requiring a minimum of 120 million hectares of arable land to ensure food security, reducing the loss of grains is as important as protecting arable land.