Grain harvest hits another record with 2.4% growth, Statistics Bureau: The central government attaches great importance to it

In 2015, grain across the country achieved another bumper harvest

——Hou Rui, Senior Statistician of the Rural Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, interprets the grain production situation

Data on national grain production released by the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2015 the country's total grain output was 621.435 million tons (1,242.87 billion jin), an increase of 14.408 million tons (28.82 billion jin) over 2014, a rise of 2.4%. Among this, the national grain sown area was 113,340.5 thousand hectares (1,700.107 million mu), an increase of 617.9 thousand hectares (9.269 million mu) over the previous year, up 0.5%. The national average yield per unit area of grain crops was 5,482.9 kg per hectare (365.5 kg/mu), an increase of 97.8 kg per hectare (6.5 kg/mu) over the previous year, up 1.8%.

The main reasons for the increase in sown area: First, the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to grain production, and the central finance authorities continued to increase support for strengthening agriculture and benefiting farmers, promptly allocating funds for various subsidies such as the 2015 direct grain subsidy and improved seed subsidy, which stabilized farmers' income expectations from growing grain. Second, the adjustment of the agricultural planting structure. Because growing cotton and oilseed rape and other crops is labor-intensive and time-consuming with relatively low comparative returns, some regions reduced the sown area of cotton and summer-harvested rapeseed and expanded the sown area of grain crops such as winter wheat and corn. For example, in parts of the Jianghuai region the sown area of cotton fell by nearly 30%. The grain output increase due to the expanded sown area was about 6.7 billion jin, contributing 23.1% to the grain increase.

The main reasons for the increase in grain yield per unit area: First, agricultural meteorological conditions were good and disasters were relatively light. Since last winter and this spring, the accumulated temperature above 10°C, rainfall, and cumulative sunshine hours in major grain-producing provinces have generally been higher than the previous year. Although severe precipitation in some southern regions at certain stages and drought in some northern regions for a period caused local disasters, overall agricultural meteorological disasters nationwide were relatively light. Second, the area of high-yield crops increased. In 2015, the national sown area of corn increased by 993.2 thousand hectares (14.898 million mu) over the previous year, up 2.7%, driving the national grain yield per unit area up by 1.3 percentage points. Third, agricultural science and technology provided strong support. In 2015, all localities continued to strengthen investment in agricultural science and technology, continuously increased the promotion and application of improved seed breeding and soil testing and formula fertilization, and provided soil testing and formula fertilization technical services free of charge to 190 million farming households. Fourth, agricultural production measures were effective. Especially after disasters occurred in some areas, multiple departments coordinated and cooperated, strengthened meteorological disaster monitoring and early warning, and carried out unified prevention and control of pests and diseases, effectively reducing disaster losses. The grain output increase due to higher yield per unit area was about 22.1 billion jin, contributing 76.9% to the grain increase.