Corn modernization takes root, yields high (4)

For example, in 2010, Gansu Agricultural Reclamation Corporation contracted 1,500 hectares of farmland in Jilin's Qianguo County. After two years of integrated and industrialized farming, yield per mu (0.067 hectare) in the company's cornfield turned out 40 percent higher than the county's average.

"By building a new irrigation system, the farm also saved water usage by 40 percent," says Wan Zunxin, general manager of the corporation's Qianguo farm. Wan said his company planned to at least quadruple the farm's acreage in five years.

However, some agricultural scientists have questioned whether it is ecologically correct to push land resources to extremes. The Chinese government propped up efforts to modernize corn production following concerns that its grain self-sufficiency may be undermined, but corn imports now only make up five percent of the country's consumption.

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