In the new period of China's urban-rural transformation and development, especially in the context of the continuous impact of the current international financial crisis and the high operation of food prices, China's food production has achieved "eight consecutive increases", which not only greatly improves the domestic food self-sufficiency rate, but also has a special significance for balancing global food supply and demand and stabilizing international market prices; it also greatly enhances China's economic development The ability to resist international financial risks has laid a solid material foundation for the stable development of China's social economy.

In the future, with the increase of grain production cost, limited arable land and continuous transfer of labor force, the increase of grain production in China needs to adhere to the development path of relying on science and technology to improve per unit area yield.

China's grain production presents the development mode of "growth fluctuation growth". According to statistics, in 1978, China's grain output was 304.765 million tons. In 1998, China's grain output exceeded 50 million tons, and then fluctuated and declined. In 2003, China's grain output was only 430.695 million tons. In 2004, the Party Central Committee made a major adjustment to the agricultural and rural economic policies to promote the rapid recovery and development of grain production. The annual grain output reached 469.469 million tons, reversing the situation of five consecutive years of decline since 1999. In 2011, China's total grain output was 571.21 million tons, which set a new historical record and increased production for the first time in half a century for eight consecutive years. This shows that China's grain production has entered a new stage of development.

In recent years, the increase of total grain output mainly comes from the contribution of per unit area yield. Since the reform and opening up, the growth of China's total grain output is the result of the joint effect of the increase of per unit area yield and the expansion of the sown area, but the space for the expansion of the sown area is very limited, and the contribution to the total grain output is on the decline, while the contribution of the increase of per unit area yield to the growth of the total grain output is on the rise. The total grain yield increased by 14.062 million tons in 2004 and 37.7% in 2011, respectively.

Grain yield per unit area increased in seven of the eight years, which were higher than the record of 300 kg per mu in 1998. In 2011, the total yield reached 57100 tons and 344 kg per mu. The yield per unit area was about 10% higher than that in 1998 and 15.6% higher than that in 2003. Both the yield per mu and the total yield exceeded the best level in history.

The increase of per unit area yield mainly depends on the progress of science and technology. The contribution rate of China's agricultural science and technology progress has increased from 27% in the early stage of reform and opening up to 52% in 2010, which shows that agricultural science and technology has played a key role in the process of realizing the leap of total grain output, and greatly enhanced China's comprehensive grain production capacity. Therefore, from the current endowment of China's agricultural resources, land is more scarce than labor. The government must vigorously strengthen the progress of agricultural biochemical technology to greatly improve land productivity and improve the level of food security.

In addition, there is still a great potential for increasing grain yield per unit area. At present, the average per unit area yield of rice, corn and soybean in China is only 75.4%, 51.8% and 55.7% of that in the United States, which indicates that there is still considerable room for the growth potential of per unit area yield of the three major crops in China. If we improve the scientific and technological content of grain production, especially the promotion of high-quality and high-yield varieties, the production of rice, wheat and corn can reach the current international advanced level, and the total yield can be increased by more than 30% . We should always adhere to the concept that science is the first productive force, strengthen the innovation ability of agricultural science and technology and the effectiveness of achievements transformation, and promote the sustained growth of grain in China.

Although China's grain output has increased for eight consecutive years, it was achieved at the level of 430.7 million tons in 2003 (the lowest level in 20 years); in 2007, China's grain output was only 501.6 million tons, which was still lower than that of 512.3 million tons in 1998, and it was only in 2008 that it reached the best level in history at that time, reaching 528.71 million tons. Therefore, this stage is mainly a restorative increase. In fact, if the average value of the total grain output in the last three and five years is used to calculate, China's comprehensive grain production capacity is about 53576 ~ 549.5 million tons.

According to relevant studies, the average annual growth rate of world grain yield per unit area has dropped from 2.7% in the 1960s to 0.9% at present, and it will further slow down by 2030. At that time, 70% ~ 80% of the world's total grain production must be achieved by increasing the level of grain yield per unit area. As a big country of agricultural production and consumption in the world, 1978-1985 is a golden period in China's grain history. The average annual growth rate of grain yield was 4.69%. From 1985-1998, the average annual growth rate dropped to 1.99%. From 1998-2003, the growth rate of grain yield stagnated and hovered. Until 2004-2011, grain production increased for eight consecutive years, and the average annual growth rate of grain yield recovered to 1.61%, but the growth rate of grain yield was still low It has not yet reached the best level in history. The slowing down of the growth rate of per unit area yield of grain indicates that the reserve of scientific and technological achievements in China is insufficient and the link of transformation of scientific and technological achievements is weak, which must be attached great importance by the relevant departments of the state.

It is suggested that high yield, high quality, high efficiency and safe grain production technology should be highlighted

In the process of agricultural science and technology progress, there are mainly two modes: one is to improve the land productivity through agricultural biochemical technology progress, mainly to ensure the national food security goal, this mode of technological progress is mainly realized through the mandatory technology change led by the government; the other is to improve labor productivity through agricultural mechanical technology progress, mainly to improve farmers' income This mode of technological progress is mainly realized through market induced technological change.

This requires giving full play to the role of the government and giving priority to the investment in food production in public finance. We should strengthen the research of new super high yield and quality varieties and their supporting technologies, launch a number of high yield and quality varieties in a planned way, and demonstrate and popularize a number of existing high yield and quality varieties and practical techniques of cost saving and efficiency increasing in large areas of rice, wheat, corn, soybean and other major production areas. We should strengthen the construction of scientific research bases, establish corresponding breeding and technological innovation centers in advantageous industrial belts, improve the ability of scientific and technological innovation, pay attention to the training of advanced and practical technologies, continuously improve the efficiency of resource utilization, strengthen the construction of grass-roots agricultural technology extension system, and speed up the pace of new varieties and new technologies promotion through policy guidance, project driving, demonstration and display.