Early-season rice harvest exceeds last year's haul

A survey in China's 10 major rice-producing provinces indicates that the nation's early-season rice harvest exceeded 28 million metric tons, up 2.7 percent year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

The area sown with rice covered 4.73 million hectares this year, a 0.4 percent year-on-year decline that was mainly due to dry climatic conditions and adjustments to the planting structure, said Li Suoqiang, the bureau's rural affairs chief.

Early-season rice grows in areas along the Yangtze River and in southern China. It is planted in March and April and harvested in June and July.

The timely transplanting of the rice was affected this year due to less precipitation and poor irrigation conditions in some areas in South China, including Guangdong province.

"Farmers switched to crops such as sweet potato and corn," Li said.

Contaminated farmland in Hunan province was withdrawn from rice cultivation, also reducing the planting area.

Measures have been taken to ensure the stability of areas designated for the first rice harvest, including the reclamation and replanting of abandoned land and support for agricultural enterprises.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Tuesday that as the modernization of rice production has accelerated, the proportion of large-scale planting has continued to increase.

Major grain growers and professional cooperatives are driving early rice production in China, it said.

The central budget will allocate 1.2 billion yuan ($190 million) to support early rice production, it said, adding that a series of policies have encouraged farmers to plant rice.

The proportion of land planted with high-quality early rice reached 50.6 percent, an increase of 4 percentage points from last year, the ministry said.

The early rice yield this year averaged 5.9 tons per hectare, a year-on-year increase of 3 percent, the bureau said.

Since the early rice was planted, weather conditions in major producing areas had remained good, and the occurrence of rain and flood disasters was light, which contributed to its growth and yields, it added.

In order to improve the yields of early rice, the ministry promoted 100 production technologies for planting and harvesting.

The central and local governments have actively responded to disasters, such as droughts in winter and spring in South China, and floods, heavy pest infestations and diseases in some areas, to ensure a bumper harvest and minimize losses due to disasters, the ministry said.

"Given the complicated and severe external environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the bumper summer grain harvest and the increase in early rice production have laid the foundation for stable grain production throughout the year," Li said.