Henan province, in Central China, plans to promote a growing technique that allows farmers to plant corn more densely and increase yields this year, the provincial government said.

The method has been adopted by 70 corn growing counties across the province and applied in more than 46,700 hectares of cornfields, the province's agriculture and rural affairs bureau said.

The technology, developed by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences' Zhongyuan Research Center, will be expanded to another 20 million hectares of land this year, the bureau said.

Ping Xishuan, the bureau official in charge of promoting farming techniques, said Henan is a major area for growing corn, and many cornfields are equipped with irrigation facilities, which is a prerequisite for expanding the dense planting technique.

Li Shaokun, a plant scientist at the research center, said it had tailored the technique for the sunlight, temperature and access to irrigation water in Henan, where the average corn output of 6 metric tons per hectare trails the national average.

The approach, which also involves the control of fertilizers and pesticides, can help increase yields by up to 4.5 tons per hectare while also increasing the efficiency of water use.