China: Summer grain yield dips, but still ‘bumper harvest’

China has had another bumper summer grain harvest despite the impact of adverse weather, official data showed Saturday.

The summer grain output came to a total of 146.13 million metric tons this year, down 0.9 percent or 1.27 million tons year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

“The bumper harvest of summer grain will lay a solid foundation for stabilizing annual grain production, and provide strong support for promoting sustained economic recovery,” said Wang Guirong, an official with the bureau.

The area of summer grain under cultivation has grown for three consecutive years, rising to 26.61 million hectares this year. Over 23 million hectares of wheat were sown, up 0.4 percent year-on-year.

To encourage farmers to grow grain, the central government continued to raise the minimum purchase price of wheat and provided one-time subsidies, Wang said.

However, the grain yield per unit area recorded a mild decline, falling 1.2 percent year-on-year to 5,491.8 kilograms per hectare this year.

Wang said the decline was caused by widespread and heavy rainfall in wheat-growing regions in northern China in late May. Meanwhile, continuous drought in southwestern China also dragged down the yield per unit area in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

China will stabilize its annual grain output at over 650 billion kg and strive to beat a target of 700 billion kg by 2025 to ensure grain security, according to a five-year plan for farming released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs last year.

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