Future transfers of rural land must be used for agricultural purposes to ensure that China can keep feeding its population, an expert warned.

In a major decision made by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in November, the country will allow farmers to lease their collectively owned land - there is no private land ownership in the countryside - to investors. The central government is encouraging investors to support a modern planting and breeding industry on the leased land.

Han Jun, deputy chief with the State Council's Development Research Center, a government think tank, said authorities should move forward cautiously on the decision because it could put the country's food supply at risk.