BEIJING -- China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday that the country's grain output rose 2.9 percent year on year in 2010 to 546.41 million tons, marking the seventh consecutive year of growth.

Ma Jiantang, director of the NBS, told a press conference that the summer grain output was down 0.3 percent year on year to 123.1 million tons while the autumn grain output stood at 391.99 million tons, up 4.8 percent year on year.