Program to boost yields of less-fertile farmland

Science and technology at center of effort to invigorate crop output in northern, eastern China

A yearlong program to increase yields of wheat, corn and soybeans in China's less-fertile regions will rely on science and technology to invigorate agricultural production and benefit 70 million farmers, according to an official from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The program, dubbed Second Granary, is expected to reap an additional 9 billion kilograms of grain by increasing the output of medium- and low-yielding farmland, said Duan Ziyuan, deputy director of the academy's Bureau of Science & Technology for Development, at a seminar in Hefei, Anhui province, on Tuesday.