China Reaps Good Summer Grain Harvest

BEIJING, August 5 (Xinhua) -- China's National Bureau of Statistics is reporting summer grain yields this year of 118.49 million tons, the second highest figure in its history.

The bureau says that this summer grain output shows an annual increase of 4.7 percent over last year.

Analysts attribute this good grain crops to good weather for the latter growth period, bringing increases in per-hectare yields.

Because of dry spells last winter and new grain distribution regulations, the amount of land sown in summer grain is 780,000 hectares less this year than in last year. The amount of land sown in rapeseed has increased 3.4 percent to 6.39 million ha. and yields are up 18.2 percent to 9.33 million tons, the bureau says.