China is facing several problems in many fields. Agriculture represents one of the most challenging areas, experts say. At a recent meeting on grain and food safety held in Beijing, experts have discussed the problems and the difficulties that the government need to overcome. According to the deputy head of the office for the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, Chinese agriculture has to faces three challenges to achieve sustainable growth. Water shortages, degrading farmland and rising labour cost represent the main challenging issues, the deputy suggests. The current Chinese situation is complex for many aspects. First of all, China is suffering from water shortages. Additionally, there is a strong conflict between urbanization and agricultural growth. The deputy has explained that the proportion of agricultural water consumption against the total water consumption will continue to drop, along with urbanization. In this framework, experts stress the importance to undertake concrete agricultural policies. The new strategies need to foster water use efficiency in order to save water. This is the most urgent issue that the Chinese government has to address, experts add. Moreover, pollution represents another serious matter that undermines Chinese safety in many ways. In relation to that, experts have highlighted that the farmland quality has been degrading, with about 2.9 per cent of farmland suffering from medium and serious pollution. Furthermore, labour cost has increased. In the United States, the situation is different: labour cost takes less than 10 per cent of the overall cost in agriculture, but the figure is between 30 to 35 per cent in China, researches show. In this context, science and technology innovations need to play a key role in order to achieve sustainable agricultural growth. In this way, China needs to strengthen its efforts establishing sustainable strategies to promote its growth. The gLAWcal Team EPSEI project Saturday, 8 November 2014 (Source: China Daily)