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China's Summer Grain Output Drops 11 Million Tons
China's summer grain output has decreased 9.3 percent over the same period last year to 107.5 million tons, according to a report released Tuesday by the China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The report said that only six out of the 26 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities nationwide that grow summer crops saw a rise in outputs, while the rest saw their outputs drop.
The summer grain output in East China's Jiangsu Province decreased by 2.96 million tons, while the output in Shandong, Anhui, Hebei, Hubei and Henan provinces reduced by 2.58 million tons, 1.58 million tons, 750,000 tons, 700,000 tons, 500,000 tons, respectively.
The report attributed the drop in output mainly to the reduction of summer grain acreage and severe drought that hit most parts of the country since spring.
Statistics indicate that the country's summer grain acreage was cut by 5.1 percent over the same period last year to 29.52 million hectares, resulting in a drop of 5.94 million tons of summer grain, accounting for 54 percent of the total summer grain reduction.
Chinese farmers reduced their summer grain acreage because the central government has abandoned protective purchase price for poor quality grain. Grain market price has been low as a result of the country's grain harvests.
The drought is the most severe one since 1990. In Hebei, north China, 1.2 million hectares of farmland was hit by drought and 50,000 ha of crops were completely destroyed.
However, China's oil-bearing crops output this year saw a 10.9 percent rise to 10.59 million tons due to further expansion of acreage. Statistics show that the acreage of summer oil-bearing crops totaled 6.87 million hectares, up 6.5 percent over the year-ago period.
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