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BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese farmers will plant less corn but more soybean and coarse grains this year, a senior official said on Saturday.
China will reduce its corn planting area by around 670,000 hectares and switch to other crops, agriculture minister Han Changfu said at a teleconference.
China has a substantial corn stockpile after years of support for corn growing. The area under cultivation hit 37 million hectares in 2015, up from 23 million hectares in 2001.
Due to the reduced planting area, China's corn output is forecast to fall by 4 percent year on year to 215 million tonnes in 2017.
Corn imports are expected to plunge by around 70 percent to 1 million tonnes this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
