But in Henan, China's top wheat production area, the hopes for increased yield rest on everyday work in the fields by farmers such as Wu Zhenhua.

Zhang Yinwu, chief agro-technician of Shangcai County, says the local agriculture bureau will soon send technicians to all villages to instruct farmers in the use of technologies to increase production, such as choosing high-yield strains and the use of the right combination of fertilizers.

"Raising per unit output of winter wheat through advanced technology is a major way to guarantee grain production, because Henan has a big population and small per capita occupancy of farmland," Zhang says.

Henan is China in miniature. A cradle of China's ancient agricultural civilization, the central province produces one tenth of the country's grain on farmland that is only six percent of the nation's total.

Despite the worst drought in six decades this spring, Henan harvested 30.7 billion kg of wheat and other summer crops, slightly higher than last year's production. Shangcai is among 20 wheat-producing counties in the province.

Zhang says a government-sponsored irrigation system, covering almost 68 percent of 150,000 hectares of farmland in the county, plays an important role in grappling with the disaster.

Farmers are also becoming more willing to invest in farmland because the government has implemented policies to encourage grain production, such as writing off levies, stabilizing purchase prices, and improving reserves systems.

"The key point is to unleash farmers' enthusiasm," Zhang says.

Yin Chengjie is also optimistic about the prospects of China's food supplies.

"Chinese policymakers are very aware that as the world's largest developing country, China can never resort to the international market to deal with food issues. It must spare no efforts to enhance its own capacity," Yin says.

Further, science and technology can play a bigger role as technology presently accounts for less than 50 percent of the factors increasing grain yield, compared with more than 70 percent in developed countries.

Anthea Webb, representative of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in China, says the world welcomes the efforts of China to address the challenges of hunger and food security by enhancing the importance of food production and the promotion of agricultural technology.

"When WFP first arrived in China (in 1979) 30 percent of the population lacked healthy and nutritious food to lead productive lives," says Webb. "Today the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) reports less than 10 percent of Chinese people are undernourished."

Webb has also observed an increase in paddy rice yields of 54 percent from 1979 to 2008, with wheat and maize yields more than doubling.

"By achieving food security in a single generation, China has provided valuable experience, which needs to be studied and made available to other developing countries," she says.

"China's example shows that when the political will and resources are made available to foster agricultural science and technology, miracles can happen," Webb says. (Additional reporting by Gui Juan in Henan, Ming Xing in Hunan,Wang Pan in Guangdong.)

(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2009)