China made what can be properly labelled a "great leap forward" in terms of cereals production per capita. From a low 164 kilograms in 1961, production per person climbed to 344 kg in 2007, comparable to the world per capita of 352 kg. The annual average growth rate is 1.6%, higher than China's population growth rate of 1.5%. Nevertheless, the situation reversed during the last decade. In 2007, production per person was only 93% of the peak 370 kg reached in 1996. This means an annual average change rate of -1%. Other statistics suggest that this trend may be caused by the shrinkage of arable land and the shortage of freshwater.
[Primary Y-axis: per capita production in kilogram/person. Secondary Y-axis: population in millions. Dots represent actual data, for which the corresponding regression line is provided in the same colour.]

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Sources: see FAOSTAT for cereals production data, and United Nations Statistics Division for population data.

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