SHANGHAI, July 3: China faces serious challenges in ensuring it will have enough grain to feed its population in the decades to come, with urbanisation and climate change two major problems, Premier Wen Jiabao said.

China’s grain supply and demand are basically balanced now but the situation is expected to worsen in the long-term, Wen said in a statement published late on Wednesday on the website of State Council, or cabinet.

Industrialisation, urbanisation and a growing population are boosting grain demand while “shrinking arable land, water shortage and climate change is an increasing constraint on output,” Wen told a cabinet meeting.

“The long-term demand and supply will be balanced but tight and ensuring grain security faces serious challenges,” he said.

The meeting approved a mid- and long-term grain security plan that aims to keep the nation’s annual grain output above 500 million tons by 2010 and increase production to more than 540 million tons a year by 2020.

The statement reiterated that China will mainly rely on itself to feed its population of more than 1.3 billion people — the world’s largest — and will be 95 per cent self-sufficient in grain supply.

To meet the goal, China has to protect the government-set “red line” of 120 million hectares that is deemed necessary to feed the country’s people, it said.—AFP