China will start today a three-month nationwide check of its grain stocks, a program many feared would be jeopardized by the worst drought in 50 years, a senior grain official has announced.

The central government's website, (www.gov.cn), quoted Ren Zhengxiao, vice-director of the State Administration of Grains, as saying yesterday that the first grain inventory check since 2001 will be in five stages and involve more than 100,000 personnel from 10 State Council departments and various localities.

The check follows a State Council decision last October to "find out the true volume of our grain stocks", and serves as an important response to the global financial crisis and an act to ensure national grain safety, Ren said.

Both the quantity and quality of China's grain stocks will be examined, he added. China had its fifth consecutive summer harvest last year, with grain output rising 5.4 percent year-on-year to a record 528.5 million tons.

In the face of the financial crisis, the central government has revised the grain output target this year to 500 million tons, a conservative estimate in the eyes of grain officials.

The country's grain boss, Nie Zhenbang, earlier told China Daily that the target was "totally feasible", unless more extreme weather events took place.

He also said national wheat supply would not be affected by the drought, which parched more than 40 percent of the total wheat-producing land until rounds of rain and snow fell in February.

A country of 1.3 billion people, China has maintained 95-percent grain self-sufficiency for more than a decade. Since China consumes more than 500 million tons of grain a year, a dip in that figure would affect global grain prices, agricultural officials have warned.

Though some say China has more stock than the international grain reserve, no official estimate is available. The US Department of Agriculture's 2001 estimate of China's grain stock was 229.7 million tons, a number it said the Ministry of Agriculture implicitly endorsed as being "close to reality".

The country's grain stocks "have been lowered since 2001", according to Ren.

Earlier, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang insisted on a "complete and thorough" check.

"As a developing country with a population of more than a billion, grain has always been the first and foremost issue to maintaining peace and stability," Li said. "Only when we know the exact amount of our grain stock, can we make wise decisions in purchasing and stocking grain, and managing the grain stock to cope with the need of development and reform."

(China Daily April 1, 2009)