It stands to reason that the world's most populous country would need to pay special attention to feeding its people. And in a part of the world where rice and other grains make up the staple portion of almost every meal, China places great store in its grain reserves. The challenges of shrinking arable land, a growing population, rising grain prices and global climate change necessitate employing cutting-edge technologies to address these issues.

Since 2004, the Chinese Government has made agricultural development its top priority for seven successive years, and as the world's largest producer, China's grain output is expected to amount to 500 million tons this year. By 2020, plans are in place to increase output to 550 million tons to ensure food security.

With such a high grain production, much of the crop needs to be stored, for three to five years and that means keeping the precious food dry, fresh and pest free. In this regard the use of green storage methods to minimize losses is the top priority for grain authorities.

Green methods

According to data from State Administration of Grain (SAG), the country's grain storage loss is about 1 percent for national reserves, but the figures can be much higher for individual famers due to pests and mildew.

China applies more ecological and effective ways to manage its grain storage in a bid to ensure safe resources from production to consumption. 

Bromomethane, a pesticide that damages the ozone layer, is no longer used in grain storage facilities. "We now control pests by controlled atmosphere (CA), or controlled CO2 techniques at our storage depots to protect grain," said He Yi, Director General of the Department of Distribution and Science of SAG.

Four new home-grown technologies of mechanical ventilation, fumigation, a temperature detection system, and grain cooling are also being widely used in grain storage, greatly improving the grain drying and storage condition, according to He.

At present, bulk grain can be cleaned up, measured, de-dusted and sprayed during the warehousing process, and storage at most state-owned grain reservoirs depots can be controlled in terms of ventilation, grain movement and fumigation through means of automatic temperature and humidity measurement.

Meanwhile, authorities are experimenting with other storage technologies, including combining controlled atmosphere storage with low-temperature storage and improving warehouses' air control to minimize the use of chemicals.