If technical problems can be solved, China plans to sow 33.5 million hectares of super-high-yield wheat by 2020, which could help increase harvests by 30 percent.

It is expected that wheat harvests in main demonstrations areas could hit 10.45 tons per hectare. The national average annual yield was 4.25 tons in 2004.

Super-high-yield wheat has been grown in a number of provinces for a number of years but the seeds still need to be improved if the wheat is to come into widespread use, said Zhai Huqu, president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science.

Scientific research needs to solve a number of problems to allow the wheat to adapt to areas outside the current demonstration zones, said Zhai.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture show China harvested 91.95 million tons of wheat in 2004. The country consumes 105 million tons of wheat every year, or 20 percent of the world's harvest.

(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2006)