Spring crops growing well

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Spring crops growing well

The overall situation of grain crops growing in China this spring is better than last year, said an official from the Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday.

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The overall situation of grain crops growing in China this spring is better than last year, said an official from the Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday.

Chen Mengshan, director in charge of the crops cultivation department under the ministry, said that 36.3 percent of crops nowin farmland fell into the "best quality" category. The figure is 1.4 percentage points higher than last year and 5.9 percentage points higher than before the winter.

Chen said the ministry recently sent out 14 teams to rural areas across the country to supervise spring planting. The information from these teams showed that the crops planted last autumn and winter are doing well and the acreage of spring sowing is expected to increase.

Of factors which might affect this summer's harvest, Chen noted that the acreage of grain crops planted last autumn and winter decreased over previous years, and might affect grain output. Besides, the northern part of China still suffered from drought and crops in some other areas are menaced by severe plant diseasesand insect pests.

The price increase of chemical fertilizer and other means of agricultural production also affected the farmers' enthusiasm for grain production. Since last September, the price of agricultural means of production used to grow grain has increased for seven straight months. The prices of some of these materials in March increased by 20 percent on last year.

China's grain output has been on decrease for the past several years. To reverse the situation, the country has set a bottom line for this year's grain output at 45.5 billion kilograms. To ensure the fulfillment of the target, the central government has issued aseries of policies to stimulate farmers' enthusiasm for grain production, such as cutting agricultural tax and expanding subsidiaries for seed.

Source: Xinhua

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