National Bureau of Statistics Releases the 2015 Grain Production Announcement

Based on the National Bureau of Statistics' sample survey of agricultural production and operation households in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) nationwide and the comprehensive statistics of agricultural production and operation units, the 2015 national grain sown area, yield per unit area and total grain output are as follows:

1. The national grain sown area was 113,340.5 thousand hectares (1,700,107 thousand mu), an increase of 617.9 thousand hectares (9,269 thousand mu) over 2014, up 0.5%. Of this, the sown area of cereals [1] was 95,648.9 thousand hectares (1,434,734 thousand mu), an increase of 1,045.4 thousand hectares (15,681 thousand mu) over 2014, up 1.1%.

2. The national grain yield per unit area was 5,482.9 kg/hectare (365.5 kg/mu), an increase of 97.8 kg/hectare (6.5 kg/mu) over 2014, up 1.8%. Of this, the cereal yield per unit area was 5,982.9 kg/hectare (398.9 kg/mu), an increase of 90.8 kg/hectare (6.1 kg/mu) over 2014, up 1.5%.

3. The national total grain output was 621,435 thousand tons (1,242.87 billion jin), an increase of 14,408 thousand tons (28.82 billion jin) over 2014, up 2.4%. Of this, cereal output was 572,253 thousand tons (1,144.51 billion jin), an increase of 14,846 thousand tons (29.69 billion jin) over 2014, up 2.7%.

National Bureau of Statistics
December 8, 2015

Table 1 Grain sown area, yield per unit area and total output in 2015

Note: Due to automatic rounding of decimal places by computer, the provincial totals may differ slightly from the national figures.

Table 2 National and provincial (autonomous regional and municipal) grain output in 2015

Note: Due to automatic rounding of decimal places by computer, the provincial totals may differ slightly from the national figures.

Explanation of the grain output survey system and methods

The national total grain output is the sum of the outputs of summer grain, early rice and autumn grain in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities).

(1) Survey methods

The grain output statistical survey adopts a combination of sample surveys for major varieties and comprehensive statistics for minor varieties, and the survey objects include agricultural production and operation households and operation units. The survey teams of the National Bureau of Statistics are responsible for the sample surveys of agricultural production and operation households, and the statistics bureaus of each province (autonomous region and municipality) are responsible for the comprehensive statistics of agricultural production and operation units.

The sample survey objects are agricultural production and operation households, and the major grain varieties surveyed include rice, wheat and corn, etc. Through representative villager groups, farming households and plots selected by sampling with the province as the overall unit, the sown area survey conducts a check of all crops within the sample area at the survey time point; the yield per unit area survey adopts the method of actual cutting and measurement, and then calculates the actual sown area and yield per unit area of each major grain variety, and multiplies the two results to obtain the output. Grain output produced by agricultural production and operation households accounts for more than 95% of the national grain output.

(2) Survey samples

At present, the grain output sample survey is carried out in 848 national survey counties. The crop sown area survey selects 8,890 villager groups and 480,000 farming households, and the yield per unit area survey of major grain crops such as rice, wheat and corn selects 8,890 villager groups and more than 60,000 plots, implemented by the investigators of the grassroots survey teams of the National Bureau of Statistics and assistant investigators.

(3) Actual cutting and measurement method

The yield per unit area survey of major grain varieties is obtained by the method of actual cutting and measurement. According to the "Crop Yield Sample Survey System", before the grain crops are harvested, the grassroots investigators in each survey village conduct field-by-field yield estimation and ranking of the corresponding grain variety planting plots based on the sown area survey samples, and select a certain number of sample plots; when harvesting, the county-level investigators or assistant investigators lay out samples on the selected sample plots, cut the samples, and then calculate the plot yield per unit area through threshing, drying, measuring moisture and impurities, weighing, and verifying cutting, pulling and threshing losses. The survey teams of the National Bureau of Statistics calculate the average yield per unit area of the whole province (autonomous region and municipality) based on the yield per unit area of the selected sample plots.

Note:
[1] Cereals mainly include corn, rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, buckwheat, oats, etc.