皇冠体育app

Society

皇冠体育app expects good summer harvest despite drought

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-24 19:19

A farmer harvests wheat in a field in Ju County, East 皇冠体育app's Shandong province, June 15, 2010. [chinadaily.com.cn]

BEIJING - 皇冠体育app expects a good summer harvest despite losses caused by the severe drought in the southwest and extremely cold weather in the north earlier this year.

Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) Thursday projected the country's summer grain output this year would top 123 million tons, close to last year's level.

Related readings:  皇冠体育app officials call for quick grain harvest  Wen urges efforts for quick summer grain harvest  Race for wheat harvest in central 皇冠体育app  Summer harvest becomes focus amid inflation expectation

"Winter wheat has been harvested from 308 million mu (20.5 million hectares), or 90.4 percent of the nation's wheat-growing farm land," Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said Thursday during an inspection tour to north 皇冠体育app's Hebei province.

Based on the yield so far, the output will be better than expected , Han said.

He attributed the good results to an expansion of wheat cultivation -- 520,000 mu more than that of last year, and the increase of output in major wheat-producing provinces.

Due to the drought that ended only a few months ago, the southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region would see summer grain production down by one third this year, Han said.

However, overall summer grain production would be close to last year's level because 11 major summer-grain growing provinces had reported increases in yield, Han said.

皇冠体育app's grain yield in 2009 hit a record high of 530.8 million tons, representing the sixth consecutive year of output growth.