China's Grain Output to Drop This YearChina's grain output this year is estimated to drop, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.Yu Yongwei, a ministry official, said November 13 that the grain output this year may be smaller by a large margin in several years, since the government cut the amount of grain planting area in an attempt to restructure the agriculture sector and China's grain-growing regions were greatly hit by the drought. The ministry estimated the grain planting area of more than 100 million hectares, down more than five percent over last year, and that in north China the amount will drop more than in the south. However, the planting area of high-quality wheat increased by 1.93 million hectares and that of high-quality rice accounted for half of the total rice planting area, signaling that China has made progress in the adjustment of the crop-growing mix, said Min Yaoliang, another official with the ministry. The country's meat output is estimated to increase by five percent and the output of aquatic products will reach 42.7 million tons this year, up 3.6 percent over last year, Min said. Chinese township enterprises are developing well this year with the added value topping 1992.8 billion yuan in the first nine months, up 12.4 percent over the same period last year and the profit totaled 470.8 billion yuan, a rise of 15.4 percent. In the first eight months this year, China's import and export volume of agricultural products totaled US$17.5 billion, up 32.2 percent over the same period of last year, of which the import volume increased by 49 percent, reaching US$7.3 billion. Min said most of the agricultural products imported from abroad were high-quality products to meet the domestic need for various strains of products. The cash income per capita in rural areas reached 1,013 yuan in the first half of this year, up 1.8 percent over the same period last year, and yet the increasing margin is 2.9 percentage points less than last year. Min said that farmers in grain-growing provinces may earn less this year due to the low price of crops. The Chinese government will work to minimize the loss that the drought caused and speed up the agricultural infrastructure development in an effort to increase its anti-disaster capacity. |
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