Henan secures grain harvest despite severe rain

Lou Yangsheng (center), Party secretary of Henan province, joins deliberations of deputies from the province at the second session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing on Thursday. JIANG QIMING/CHINA NEWS SERVICE

Henan province ensured a stable grain yield despite encountering severe rain last year, and made great contributions to national food security, provincial Party secretary Lou Yangsheng said during the ongoing two sessions in Beijing.

Lou, secretary of the Henan provincial Party committee and a deputy to the National People's Congress, said at a group discussion on Thursday that Henan's grain output exceeded 65 million metric tons last year. That accounted for 10 percent of grain production in China, even though the province has only 6 percent of the country's arable land.

Henan sends more than 3 million tons of grain and food products to other provincial-level areas each year, contributing to national food security, Lou said.

Meanwhile, the province has upgraded facilities on 5.72 million hectares of farmland, accounting for 76 percent of the cultivated land in the province, Lou said.

Henan was among the first provinces in the nation to start building large-scale demonstration zones of high-quality farmland, innovating supervision methods and expanding investment sources, he said.

With a strong seed industry in the Central Plains, Henan has the highest number of selected national leading varieties and technologies among all provinces, Lou said.

"We aim to establish a leading research and manufacturing base for agricultural machinery equipment," he said.

The province has cultivated 4,495 leading agricultural industrialization enterprises and established 12 national industrial parks for modern agriculture.

Last year, during the summer harvest of wheat, Henan encountered the most severe rain since 1961.

"The summer harvest was the most essential work of the province during those five days," Lou said. The province promptly implemented 10 emergency measures for harvesting and drying grain, making all-out efforts to ensure grain reserves, seed security and farmers' incomes, he said.

With agricultural machinery mobilized, the daily harvesting reached a record 1.03 million hectares, he said.

The harvested wheat was purchased from farmers as much as possible to reduce losses for grain growers. Relief funds were urgently allocated for drying wheat while insurance claims could be processed within seven days to protect farmers' interests, he added.