During the rapid process of urbanization, the government must take measures to avoid damaging the countryside, a decline in agricultural output and the marginalization of farmers, said Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the Party's leading group on rural work.

China imported more than 60 billion kg of grain in 2011 - including more than 52.4 million tons of soybeans. The country also imported 6.27 million tons of vegetable oil, 3.3 million tons of cotton, 2 million tons of sugar and 500,000 tons of pork.

China's self-sufficiency in food has dropped below 90 percent, according to Chen, speaking at an international forum on urbanization in Shanghai last year.