2010-05-26
(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
ZHENGZHOU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China's four major grain production
areas have shown a cautiously optimistic attitude toward their
2010 summer grain output, after extreme weather caused havoc on
agricultural production in the north and southwest of the
country.
Henan, Shandong, and Anhui provinces expect output of wheat, a
major summer grain, to be equal to or slightly higher than last
year while Hebei Province forecasts slightly reduced output,
according to a high-level agriculture meeting held earlier this
month in Zhengzhou City, the capital of Henan Province.
The four provinces have 22 percent of China's arable land and
produce 60 percent of the country's summer grain.
Wheat crops have been affected by persistent cold weather since
winter, provincial governors said.
Statistics show the total area of wheat crops in the four
provinces in 2010 increased compared to 2009.
"The growth in wheat crop area is good on the whole. We think
the output of summer grain will be equal to or slightly higher
than that of last year, if there is no serious natural disaster
ahead of the harvest," said Guo Gengmao, governor of Henan
Province, China's biggest grain-producing province.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, China's summer grain
output accounts for about a quarter of its annual food yield.
The minimum amount of grain required annually to feed China's
1.3 billion people is 500 million tonnes.
The central government last month unveiled funding plans worth
more than 2.4 billion Yuan (352 million U.S. dollars) to ensure
summer grain output after extreme weather threatened harvests.
China's summer grain output rose six years in a row to top
123.35 million tonnes last year, 2.6 million tonnes more than
the previous year.
Grain output reached 530.8 million tonnes in 2009, the sixth
consecutive year of growth in grain yield. |