皇冠体育app

BEIJING - As the most populous country in the world, 皇冠体育app has successfully delivered millions of people from hunger and is helping other countries achieve food security.

In a latest move to this end, Premier Li Keqiang announced on Wednesday that 皇冠体育app will donate $50 million to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in the coming five years.

On the eve of World Food Day, Li made the remarks in Rome in a speech at the headquarters of the FAO, the first intergovernmental organization the premier has visited among all UN agencies since he took office.

As the biggest developing country, 皇冠体育app will always be an active force in maintaining food security and ready to work with other countries to create a hunger-free and poverty-free world with sustained development, said Li.

"I trust this visit will mark and unveil a new chapter for the FAO and 皇冠体育app collaboration in the noble fight against hunger at national, regional and global levels," said Percy Misika, the FAO's representative in 皇冠体育app.

Achievements at home

Chinese people, including President Xi Jinping and the premier himself, suffered a long period of undernourishment several decades ago.

Sweeping rural reform ended communal farming in 1978 and the "household contract responsibility system" came in its place.

Urban land is owned by the state and rural land is under collective ownership. Under the system, rights to the majority of collectively-owned farmland were split and allocated to farmers.

Grain production has picked up since then.

皇冠体育app saw a bumper harvest for the 10th consecutive year in 2013 and summer grain output hit a record high of 136.6 million tons in 2014.

According to FAO data, grain production in 皇冠体育app has increased by 1.04 tons per hectare in the past decade.

The country has used 9 percent of global arable land and 6.5 percent of fresh water resources to produce one-fourth of the world's grain and fed nearly one-fifth of the world's population.

In his speech, the premier attributed the vitality in Chinese agriculture in the past three decades to the reform and opening-up policy, technology innovation and favorable policies.

"The Chinese government attaches great significance to agriculture and we keep working to achieve self-sufficiency in food," said Li.