Smooth Rural Economy in China

As informed from Ministry of Agriculture, this year has seen the sown area of summer grain reaching 0.44 billion mu, a decrease by 20 million mu as compared to that of last year. Affected by decrease in sown area, drought, and drop in unit output, the output of summer grain is anticipated at 105 billion kilograms, declining by 10% as against last year.

This year has also seen a significant improvement in the regional distribution and adjustment in variety structure of summer grain. The area for winter wheat with inferior quality, low output and bad efficiency was decreased in the south. The decrease of wheat area in Jiangsu, Hubei, Sichuan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hunan provinces accounted for over one half of the output dropping area across the country. The quality of winter wheat has been further improved with high-grade wheat area reaching 550 million mu, doubling that of last year.

The grain-sown area is predicted at 1.647 billion mu, a decrease of 50 million mu with a big drop of wheat and maze. The area of early rice dropped by 10 million mu while fine-quality early rice area has been expanded to 53 million, covering 50% of early rice area; Autumnal grain area will decrease by 10%.

Due to the recovery of textile export, cotton price has witnessed a somewhat pick-up, and with it the cotton planting area has increased. Sugar area decreased by 2.4 million mu; oil crop area an increase by 21 million mu and vegetable area being expanded by 27 million mu.

The mechanization level of agricultural production is further raised. The agricultural machinery maintain a steady growth in the first half of the year with the total power hitting 0.5 billion kilowatt. The combine harvester and multi-functional tractors are still the spotlight in the growth of farming machinery. The increasing speed of small tractors has slowed down, indicating an improvement in agricultural machinery structure. It is estimated that cross-regional operating machines will reach 100 thousand, fulfilling 65% of wheat mechanized harvesting area, of which 40% is harvested by combines.



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