1. Agricultural Production China’s grain output in 2017 reached 661.61 million tons, representing an increase of 1.17 million tons from the previous year, representing the sixth consecutive growth year on year of production exceeding 600 million tons . Farmland for grain production measured 117.989 million hectares in total, down 1.241 million hectares. Per-hectare grain output reached 5 607 kilograms, 68 kilograms more than that of 2016, hitting a record high.

Oil-seed production reached 34.75 million tons, up 750 000 tons. Cotton output stood at 5.65 million tons, up 310 000 tons. The production of sugar increased by 2.03 million tons to 113.79 million tons. Vegetable production stood at 690 million tons, increasing by 17.59 million tons. Fruit production amounted to 252 million tons, up 8.37 million tons, and tea leaf production was up 150 000 tons to 2.46 million tons.

The annual total output of meat reached 86.54 million tons, registering an increase of 0.3 percent. The output of pork increased by 0.5 percent to 54.54 million tons, poultry eggs output decreased by 2 percent to 30.96 million tons, and dairy products output stood at 30.39 million tons, down 0.8 percent. The output of aquatic products totaled 64.45 million tons, up 1.0 percent.

2. Land Reclamation The land reclamation sector generated a total output value of 790.528 billion yuan in 2017, marking a 7.1 percent rise from the previous year. The primary, secondary and tertiary industries grew by 5.5 percent, 6.6 percent and 9 percent respectively, representing a value added of 190.12 brillion yuan, 357.046 brillion yuan, and 243.362 brillion yuan respectively. The values-added they created severally accounted for 24 percent, 45.2 percent and 30.8 percent of the total output value of land reclamation. The per capita gross domestic product reached 56 208 yuan, up 6.8 percent. The total fixed assets investment for the year was 523.09 billion yuan, and the newly added fixed assets were 327.877 billion yuan. The annual grain sown area was 4.886 85 million hectares, with a total output of 35.172 5 million tons, an increase of 314 000 tons or 1 percent over the previous year.

3. Agricultural Mechanization In 2017, the agricultural mechanization level reached 66 percent, witnessing an increase of 1 percentage point on average and 10 percentage points compared with that of 2012. The comprehensive mechanization rate of wheat reached 95 percent, of corn reached 84 percent, and the machine yield of corn reached 69 percent, up 2.5 percentage points year-on-year. The comprehensive mechanization rate of rice exceeded 80 percent, and that of rapeseed, cotton, peanut and soybean was three percentage points higher than that of the previous year. Increase by more than 3 percentage points. The mechanization level of major economic crops has achieved substantial improvement. China’s agricultural production mode is entering a new stage dominated by mechanization.

4. Crop Seed Industry In 2017, main crop seed still remained oversupplied. Statistics showed the national needs for corn seed reached about 1.1 billion kilograms and a total of 2.1 billion kilograms could provide for planting. The domestic planting requirement for hybrid rice is 258 million kilograms, and the export needs reached 61.14 million kilograms, which can be used for planting 360 million kilograms. The conventional rice needs seeds of 700 million kilograms, and it can provide seeds of 900 million kilograms for planting. The planting needs for cotton seeds reached 91 million kilograms, and a total of 95 million kilograms of seeds can be planted.

The need for soybean seeds totaled 427 million kilograms, and it can provide 445 million kilograms for planting. The need for winter wheat seeds reached about 3.2 billion kilograms, available for planting 5.1 billion kilograms. The need for winter rapeseed reached 14.91 million kilograms, and 16.7 million kilograms can be provided for planting, which can meet the demand for agricultural production in 2017. At the national level, 406 major crop varieties were examined, an increase of 241 over the same period last year, of them 178 for rice, 26 for wheat, 171 for corn, 10 for cotton, and 21 for soybeans.

5. Agro-product Prices and Market The overall level of the producer prices of farm products went down 3.5 percent in 2017. Among them, the sectors of producer prices of agricultural products, animal husbandry and live pigs witnessed a decrease of 0.5 percent, 9.2 percent, and 14 percent respectively, while the sectors of forestry, fishery, and grain saw the producer prices rise by 4.9 percent, 4.9 percent and 0.1 percent severally.

The consumer price index for rural residents rose 1.3 percent year on year in 2017, 0.3 percentage point lower than the national average and 0.4 percentage point lower than the urban average. Retail prices in rural areas climbed 1.3 percent from the previous year, the pace of growth higher 0.4 percentage point than the previous year, and 0.2 percentage point and 0.2 percentage point higher than the national average and retail prices in urban areas.

The volume of retail sales of consumer goods in the countryside reached 5.197 2 trillion yuan, marking an increase of 11.8 percent. The pace of growth was 0.9 percentage point higher than that for 2016, and 1.8 percentage points higher than that for urban areas.

6. Agro-product Imports and Exports China’s imports and exports of agricultural produce witnessed increase in 2017, which totaled 201.39 billion U.S. dollars, up 9.1 percent year on year.

The volume of exports was 75.53 billion dollars, up 3.5 percent; that of imports reached 125.86 billion dollars, up 12.8 percent. Foreign trade in farm produce generated a deficit of 50.32 billion dollars,up 30.4 percent.

Grain exports were 1.5 times higher than that of the previous year, reaching 1.616 5 million tons, while grain imports increased by 16.4 percent to 25.601 1 million tons, indicating a 23.984 6-million-ton volume of net grain imports, up 12.3 percent. Imports of edible oilseeds, edible vegetable oil, and cotton increased by 13.9 percent, 7.9 percent, and 9.9 percent, while that of sugar decreased by 25.2 percent. The exports of vegetables and fruits both went up by 8.5 percent and 1.5 percent, and the deficit in foreign trade in livestock products increased by 8.4 percent, while the surplus in that of aquatic products was down 13.7 percent.

7. Agricultural Comprehensive Development In 2017, the central budget allocated 38.6 billion yuan for agricultural comprehensive development. The agricultural comprehensive development is to promote the structural reform of the supply side of agriculture as the main line, to innovate the mechanism, improve the policy, strengthen management, and improve efficiency. New progress was made to improve the comprehensive agricultural production capacity, promote the integration of rural secondary and tertiary industries, transform the agricultural development mode, develop agricultural scale management, win the fight against poverty, and promote pilot demonstrations of the rural complex.

8. Feed Industry The national total output of commercial feedstuffs increased by 6 percent to 221.61 million tons in 2017. Of the total output, formula feed accounted for 196.19 million tons, up 6.7 percent; concentrate feed 18.54 million tons, up 1.2 percent; and feed premixed with additives 6.89 million tons, down 0.3 percent. The output of pig feed was 98.1 million tons, up 12.4 percent; egg poultry feed 29.31 million tons, down 2.4 percent; table-poultry feed 60.15 million tons, up 0.1 percent; aquatic feed 20.8 million tons, up 7.8 percent; ruminant feed 9.23 million tons, up 4.9 percent; and other feed 4.03 million tons, up 10.2 percent.

9. Forestry Development In 2017, the country completed a total of 7.680 7 million hectares of afforestation, 8.856 4 million hectares of forest nurturing, and the scale of afforestation reached a new level, with afforestation area exceeding 100 million mu. The construction of key national ecological forest projects was solidly promoted, and the afforestation area reached 2.991 2 million hectares, an increase of 19.6 percent over the previous year. The conservation of forest germplasm resources has been steadily advanced, and the management of national key forestry seed bases has been comprehensively strengthened. The utilization rate of improved varieties increased from 51 percent to 61 percent, and the qualified rate of seedling quality was stable at over 90 percent.

10. Grassland Protection and Construction In 2017, the country invested 24.6 billion yuan in this area, the central government allocated 18.76 billion yuan for grassland awards and subsidies Among them,

9.05 billion yuan for subsidies of grassland grazing prohibition, with an area of 80.666 67 million hectares; the grass and livestock balance reward is 6.51 billion yuan, with an area of 173.333 33 million hectares; the performance appraisal reward fund is nearly 3.2 billion yuan, giving funds rewards to areas with outstanding work and remarkable results. The country accelerated the grassland ecology recovery. In 2017, the national grassland comprehensive vegetation coverage reached 55.3 percent, an increase of 0.7 percentage point over the previous year; the total output of fresh grass on natural grassland was 1 064.911 8 million tons, an increase of 2.53 percent over the previous year; the equivalent hay was about 328.419 3 million tons, and the livestock capacity is about 258.142 2 sheep units, an increase of 2.54 percent over the previous year.

11. Aquatic Resources Conservation and Aquatic Ecology Restoration In 2017, the aquatic living resources conservation system was further improved. The aquatic organisms’ proliferation and release activities were widely carried out. The construction of marine pasture demonstration areas and the ecological environment protection of fishery waters were carried out in an orderly manner, and the protection and management of aquatic wildlife was further strengthened.

12. Industrialized Operations of Agriculture The number of leading enterprises identified by the agricultural industrialization departments at or above the county level reached 87 000, including 17 000 key leading enterprises at or above the provincial level and 1 242 national key leading enterprises. The number of key leading enterprises above the provincial level with annual sales income exceeding 100 million yuan exceeded 8 000, and that of enterprises with annual income exceeding 10 billion yuan reached 70. These leading enterprises have stronger demonstration effects on improving the comprehensive agricultural competitiveness in China.

13. Agro-processing In 2017, the number of China’s agro- processing enterprises above designated size was up 6.5 percent from the previous year, up 0.7 percentage point. Their main businesses generated 19.4 trillion yuan of revenues, up 6.5 percent, with the growth pace up 1.2 percentage points year on year. Their total profits increased by 7 percent to 22 trillion yuan.

14. Leisure Agriculture In 2017, the managing body of leisure agriculture and rural tourism has reached 330 000, an increase of more than 30 000 over the previous year, and the operating income reached nearly 550 billion yuan. Leisure agriculture and rural tourism have become a new mode that promoted the development of tourism in rural areas, improved the the rural production and living ecology, and enhanced the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas. It also played a more and more important role in developing modern agriculture, increasing farmers’ income, building a new socialist countryside as well as building a well-off society in an all-round way.

15. Construction of Agro-product Market System Currently, wholesale markets of farm produce numbered more than 4 500 nationwide, with production market accounting for 70 percent. At the end of 2016, specialized farm-produce wholesale markets with a turnover of 100 million yuan or above numbered 966, with 522 900 stands, 43.718 3 million square meters of business areas, and 1.653 921 trillion yuan of combined turnovers. In terms of market structure, grain and oil markets made up 9.69 percent of the specialized large-scale wholesale markets in 2017; meat, poultry and egg markets 8.18 percent; aquatic product markets 18.43 percent; vegetable markets 25.09 percent; dried and fresh fruit markets 18.7 percent; and markets of cotton, linen, local products, livestock, tobacco and other products 19.91 percent. It formed a circulation network of large-scale specialized market with vegetables, fruits, aquatic products and other fresh products as the majority, which played an important role in optimizing the production structure, smoothing the market channel and increasing farmers’ incomes.

16. Agro-product Quality and Safety Control Routine inspections in 2017 found 97 percent of vegetables, 99.5 percent of livestock and poultry products and 96.3 percent of aquatic products to be up to standard, up 0.2 percentage point, 0.1 percentage point and 0.4 percentage point year on year respectively. The quality and safety of agro-products reached 97.8 percent, up 0.3 percentage point year on year. No major incidents concerning farm product quality and safety occurred across the year, which contributed to stability, progress, quality enhancement, and efficiency improvement in agriculture and rural economy.

17. Agro-science Research, Popularization and Education In 2017, the MoA focused on the structural reform of agriculture supply, green development and agricultural quality and efficiency competitiveness. It aims to enhance the demand for science and technology, optimize the allocation of scientific and technological resources, and increase the intensity of research. In 2017, the contribution rate of agricultural science and technology progress reached 57.5 percent. The MoA took the modern agricultural industrial technology system, the National Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Alliance and the modern agricultural industry science and technology innovation center as the starting point. The country strengthened the institutional mechanism innovation and promoted the close integration of science and technology and industry, which drove the the modern agricultural industrial technology system to make more contribution and the national agricultural science and technology innovation alliance make outstanding achievements, and the modern agricultural industry science and technology innovation center make progress steadily.

The central government invested 2.6 billion yuan to implement the reform on agricultural technology extension system at grassroots level. The MoA also accelerated the cultivation on new professional farmers. In 2017, the central government invested 1.5 billion yuan to implement the cultivation project on new professional farmers, and launched four projects, including training on new business entity leaders, modern young farmers, rural practical talent leaders and training on agricultural poverty alleviation. The MoA aimed to train more than 1 million new types of professional farmers throughout the year.

18. Development of Agricultural and Rural Talent In 2017, the MoA continued to organize and implement the outstanding research talents development program, and created an agricultural innovation team on science and technology, consisting of 300 outstanding talents and 3 000 key members. The MoA worked with the Central Organization Department to organize 210 training courses, which trained more than 20 000 rural practical talents and university students. Up to now, more than 900 demonstration training courses have been held, and the MoA sent more than 92 000 large-scale breeding households, family farmers, leaders of farmer’s cooperatives, village officials and university students to the rural areas on training and exchange, which nurtured a large number of leaders who are willing to stay in rural areas. The MoA have trained more than 900 000 secondary school professionals in rural areas in the past ten years.

19. Development of Agricultural Administrative Capacity In 2017, the MoA actively promoted the transformation of functions, continued to carry out the reform on streamlining administration and delegating power to the lower levels, strengthening regulation, and optimizing services. It also promoted institutional innovation, deepened the reform of the agricultural administrative management system, and enhanced the agricultural public service capacity.

By the end of 2017, the country had 72 000 grassroots-level agro- technical promotion institutes, including 18 000 in county level and 54 000 in township level. The veterinarian working system was basically finished and adjustment on slaughter supervision at provincial level was accomplished. The system building on new type of veterinarians was promoted further. The country has confirmed 122 000 official vets, and 103 000 people have attended the exams and passed it to get vet license certification. The number of registered vets in rural areas reached 313 000. The construction of supervision institutions on agro-product quality and security made progress continuously, with all the provinces, 88 percent of cities, 75 percent of counties, and 97 percent of towns accomplished and 117 000 full-time and part-time supervisors on duty. It supported the construction of 3 332 agro-product quality testing institutions at provincial, city and county level, with 35 000 testing staff. The ministry also promoted the building of national agro-product quality and safety counties, with 107 cities and counties on the list and another 215 pilot places.

20. Agricultural Disasters In 2017, the agricultural disasters were generally light than previous years. The country has seen 18.466 67 million hectares’ crops affected, down 7.733 33 million hectares. Among them, 9.2 million hectares were victimized, and 1.826 67 million hectares were totally failed, down 4.466 67 million hectares and 1.073 33 million hectares respectively. The area of victimized crops and totally-failed crops reached a record low in ten years.

The major pests and diseases of crops were moderately occurring. Among them, wheat stripe rust, ear mites, rice stem borer, sheath blight, and three generations of corn worms happened relatively frequently. The natural disasters suffered by the livestock industry mainly included floods, earthquakes, grassland fires, and prairie pests. Major animal epidemics in the country have remained generally stable.

21. Agricultural Resources And Environment Protection The MoA strengthened policy guidance on promoting the development of water-saving agriculture, reduction of fertilizers and pesticides, prevention and control of aquaculture pollution, comprehensive utilization of straw mulch, and the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution. The ministry promoted dryland water- saving agricultural technology covering an area of 1.333 33 million hectares in eight provinces and autonomous regions in North China and Northwest China. It launched pilot projects on the comprehensive control of groundwater over-exploitation in Hebei, and reduce the planting area of winter wheat by 133 330 hectares. The ministry promoted the building of 100 demonstration counties on replacing organic fertilizers with fertilizers, and 300 demonstration counties on cultivated land quality improvement and reduction of fertilizers. The MoA established 19 demonstration counties and 750 demonstration farms on healthy aquaculture. In Northeast China, the country launched pilot projects for comprehensive utilization of straw in 71 major maize producing areas. It also built 100 pilot counties on membrane recycling in the membrane area. The MoA strengthened the prevention and control of soil pollution by promoting the legislative work of the Law on Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution. Steady progress was made in the protection of agricultural resources, and the collection and preservation of more than 2 000 important agricultural wild plant resources.

22. International Agricultural Cooperation and Exchange In 2017, the country has deepened its international agricultural cooperation. The foreign investment cooperation in agriculture has been further expanded, with stable development of the import and export of agricultural products. The international influence of agriculture has been gradually improved, and multilateral as well as bilateral cooperation and exchanges with key countries, regions and international organizations have achieved remarkable results. By the end of 2017, the agricultural foreign investment flow exceeded 2.22 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 1.86 percent of non-financial foreign investment, and more than 1 300 foreign enterprises engaged in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery in 107 countries and regions around the world.