Maintaining 95-percent grain self-sufficiency is China's national policy based on the country's realities, and anything lower than that figure would affect global grain prices, Vice-Agricultural Minister Wei Chao'an said yesterday.

"Now, we certainly can ensure the country's food security and control grain prices in the domestic market," Wei said at a press conference on the sidelines of the national legislature's annual session in Beijing.

"That's because government grain reserves are much larger than last year, and the total amount is much more than the international grain reserve."

Consuming more than 500 million tons - about one-fourth of the world's total 2008 output - of grain annually, China has been 95-percent self-sufficient for more than a decade.

Last year, it managed to reach complete grain self-sufficiency, Wei said.

"When it comes to providing food for the Chinese, we have nowhere else to look other than in our own rice bowls," State Administration of Grain director Nie Zhenbang told China Daily earlier.

The central government's grain output target this year - 500 million tons - is "totally feasible", barring more extreme weather events, he said.

Nie called the target "conservative", because it is lower than China's grain output last year, which totaled 528.5 million tons.

The country's wheat supply will not be affected by the worst drought in 50 years, which parched more than 40 percent of the total wheat-producing land for months until rounds of rain and snow fell last month, he added.

"The severe drought has, for the most part, ended," Nie said.

He pointed out that because wheat accounts for only a fifth of China's annual grain output, "overall grain production for the year will not be affected even if wheat output drops".

The drought will have little impact on global grain prices, Nie said.

"I think we are perfectly capable of having another good summer harvest," he added.

China has had wheat harvests for five consecutive years and boasts abundant grain stocks, Nie said.

State reserves, incorporated under the national grain safety strategy, have been well managed at all governmental levels. The country's grain supply passed the tests of the recent natural catastrophes, he said.

State grain reserves provided for the five provinces and municipalities affected by the Wenchuan earthquake in May 2008. Local stocks sufficed during the snowstorm that affected 17 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities earlier last year, Nie said.

The central government has made "stabilizing agricultural production and increasing farmers' incomes" a State goal of 2009 - a year it warns could be "the toughest since the turn of the century".

To make that happen in the wake of the historic drought, declining grain prices and a global recession, China will spend 716.1 billion yuan (US$104.6 billion) on agriculture, farmers and the rural areas in 2009, a year-on-year increase of 120.6 billion yuan (US$17.6 billion).

(China Daily March 13, 2009)