The plan cleared by the State Council yesterday aims at exceeding grain output of 500 billion kgs until 2010 and reaching 540 billion kgs by 2020.
The cabinet meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao was briefed about the tremendous challenges faced by farmers in increasing output and about the sprawling industrialisation and urbanisation that had pushed up the demand while land and water shortages as well as climate change hurt production, official Xinhua news agency said.
"The State Council agreed the country faced grim challenges in grain security," it said, adding, it approved a mid to long-term plan to ensure national grain security.
The meeting concluded that relentless efforts should be made to ensure a minimum of 120 million hectares of arable land and to improve agriculture infrastructure and water facilities.
China produced 501.5 million tonnes of grain last year, 15 million tonnes less than the total demand.
The Chinese premier said the country has 40 to 50 million tonnes of rice reserves to cushion it against global price rise.
China is expected to witness the fifth consecutive bumper harvest of summer grain this year, the first such run of harvests since 1949, the Ministry of Agriculture has said.
The summer crops, which usually account for about 23 per cent of the nation's annual grain output, would surpass the 115.34 billion kg for 2007, the ministry said.
