BEIJING - China's agriculture risks "being ignored and weakened" in the next five years in the face of the country's quick industrialization and urbanization, Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said in a recent interview.

Modernization in agriculture has been lagging far behind development of many other sectors, he said.

Also, increasing shortages of farmland and water resources, as well as serious environmental pollution and heated competition in the global market, are expected to pose great challenges to China's agriculture over the next five years, he said.

"The country's agriculture has witnessed great achievements in the past five years, thanks to huge government investment," said Lu Bu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

"But as agriculture is usually regarded as an industry that cannot generate great economic returns, it is easy to treat it lightly," he said.

Since 2007, the country's annual grain output has remained above 500 million tons.

On Friday, the National Bureau of Statistics said the country's grain output rose 2.9 percent year-on-year to 546.4 million tons in 2010, the seventh consecutive year of growth for China's grain output.

"China has never had such great harvests before," Han said.

Han highly praised agricultural achievements in the past five years, especially as the country was frequently hit by natural disasters, such as drought, rainstorms and low temperatures.

The minister believed government support policies are primary reasons for the achievements.

Ministry statistics showed subsidies for farmers on agricultural production reached 134.5 billion yuan ($20.23 billion) this year, a sharp increase from 14.5 billion yuan in 2004.

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Also, the country's minimum purchasing price for wheat and rice has risen continuously in the past five years to protect farmers when grain prices were too low on the market.

Farmers' annual net income per capita was more than 5,000 yuan in 2009 and had an 8.3 percent increase on average from 2006 to 2009.

The central government plans to boost China's annual grain output to more than 550 million tons by 2020, which means more high-yield fields and more advanced agricultural technologies will be adopted.

At present, the average grain yield of the country's 4,380 high-yield fields is 9.8 tons per hectare, compared to a national average of 5 tons.

"More high-yield fields resistant to drought and flood will be built in next five years to ensure the country's grain supply," Han said.

"The country will also strengthen its effort on infrastructure construction and provide more training opportunities to farmers, helping them increase their incomes," he said.