Summer grain production is expected to increase 4.8 percent year-on-year to 101.05 million tonnes, the first increase in five years, the Xinhua news agency cited Vice Premier Hui Liangyu as saying.
This will allow grain output to reach, or even exceed, the 455 million tonnes target by the end of the year, said Hui.
It compares with 430 million tonnes last year but still leaves China with an expected 25 million tonne shortfall as growing demand continues to put pressure on inadequate reserves.
Shrinking acreages, falling water tables and a population that is expected to grow significantly beyond 1.3 billion are factors that have led some grain experts to conclude that China will be a regular net food importer in coming years.
The latest figures come on the heels of media reports that the country's leaders have commissioned an urgent review of food security after China became a net importer of farm produce during the first half of the year. Total imports of farm produce in the first six months rose 62.5 percent to 14.35 billion dollars, while exports totalled 10.62 billion dollars, an 11 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. In the first half, China imported 4.1 million tonnes of grain, or 1.8 times the year-earlier level as strategic stocks fell because of declining annual harvests every year since 1998.
To drive home the sense of urgency, tough government measures have been implemented to check the disorderly and unauthorised acquisition of farmland.
Xinhua said China has reclaimed over 1,300 square kilometres (520 square miles) of farmland during the first six months as the government tightened land use controls to curb excessive investment and protect pastures from developers.
The agency added that farmer's incomes rose 10.9 percent in the first half of this year, the first double-digit increase in many years.
The government has pledged to narrow the growing rural-urban income divide amid concerns this could become a trigger for social instability.