People load newly-harvested wheat onto a truck at Huangfanqu farm, a national modern agriculture demonstration farm, in Central China's Henan province, June 5, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING – China will step up its efforts to promote the development of agricultural services trade, an official said Friday.

Ma Youxiang, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, made the remarks at a forum during the ongoing 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services.

Agricultural services trade refers to the cross-border trade of selling or purchasing agriculture-related services. Facing challenges in the global food security, enhancing the productivity of agricultural industry and smoothening the supply chains require more efforts to promote the services trade in the agriculture sector, Ma said.

READ MORE: Optimizing agricultural efficiency

Ma called for efforts to formulate fair, equitable and reasonable rules on agricultural services trade and improve the quality of the trade with innovation.