The Number

800 million mu

China plans to develop 800 million mu (53.3 million hectares) of drought and flood resistant farmland by 2020 in an effort to ensure output, Agriculture Minister Han Changfu has disclosed. Restrained by land and water resources, the nation should rely on technology and new varieties of seeds to extract maximum yields, Han emphasized at a training session on grain output. With shrinking arable land and widespread land pollution, ensuring output to meet the demands of over a billion people is a very high priority.