Report: China will maintain self-sufficiency through 2023

A new report says China will be able to maintainself-sufficiency in its main food crops, including wheat and rice, despite anexpected increase in the country’s food imports.
“China Agricultural Outlook 2014-23,” released by the Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, says China’s annual output of wheat, rice and corn will reach 578 million metric tons in 2023. An estimated 596 million tons of crops will be needed to feed the nation by 2023, when the population is forecast to reach 1.4 billion, according to the United Nations.
China’s grain output was more than 602 million tons in 2013, marking the 10^th consecutive year of increases, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. The annual output of rice is expected to reach 204 million tons in 2023; wheat, 127 million tons; and corn, 247 million tons, according to the report.