BEIJING: China’s summer grain harvest increased despite rare floods last year, laying a solid foundation for the annual grain harvest, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said. The summer grain output reached 147.4 million metric tons, increasing 1.4 million tons from last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The output of wheat stood at 135.7 million tons, up 1 percent year-on-year.
Pan Wenbo, director of the ministry’s planting management department, said favorable weather conditions and technical support contributed to the summer grain harvest.
The winter was warmer and there was no severe spring drought, he said. Sufficient soil moisture and the large temperature difference between morning and evening also helped wheat production.
Meanwhile, funds from the central government for grain production increased by 15.5 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) over the previous year. Experts directed the wheat planting and were dispatched to provinces seriously affected by floods to guide the growing.
Effective protection from plant diseases and pests also ensured output. About 1.6 billion yuan was allocated to plant protection for wheat, including spraying pesticides, which led to better-than-normal wheat quality, Pan said.
The yields of summer grain are better than expected, with per hectare yield reaching 5.5 tons. “The increase of yields contributed to 64 percent of the total production growth,” he said.
To alleviate the effect of epidemic control and prevention amid machine harvesting, operators were in place five days before the harvest started in Shanghai, and Anhui and Henan provinces.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
