Why did early rice production decline? Statistics Bureau: Drought and lower enthusiasm for planting

China News Service, August 21 - According to national early rice production data released today by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's early rice output in 2015 was 33.691 million tons, a decrease of 320,000 tons from 2014, down 0.9%. Hou Rui, a senior statistician of the Rural Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, said in an interpretation that the early rice sown area decreased somewhat. On the one hand, drought occurred in some areas when early rice was being transplanted; on the other hand, because early rice planting has relatively low returns and high labor intensity, some farmers switched from double-cropping rice to single-cropping rice.

Among this, the early rice sown area was 5,715.4 thousand hectares (85.731 million mu), a decrease of 79.5 thousand hectares (1.193 million mu) from 2014, down 1.4%; the early rice yield per unit area was 5,894.8 kg/hectare (393.0 kg/mu), an increase of 25.6 kg/hectare (1.7 kg/mu) from 2014, up 0.4%.

Hou Rui pointed out that the early rice sown area decreased somewhat. On the one hand, drought occurred in some areas when early rice was being transplanted, which affected early rice planting; on the other hand, because early rice planting has relatively low returns and high labor intensity, some farmers switched from double-cropping rice to single-cropping rice. In 2015, due to the decrease in sown area, national early rice output fell by 467,000 tons (930 million jin).

At the same time, Hou Rui also said that in the same period the early rice yield per unit area increased slightly. First, overall agrometeorological conditions were relatively good in most areas. Although during this year's early rice growing period some areas experienced low temperatures and drought, and some had floods, overall agrometeorological conditions were good. Especially during the key period of early rice growth, the impact of high-temperature heat damage was relatively light, and most major producing provinces and regions did not experience strong typhoon weather, which was very favorable for the smooth grain filling and maturation of early rice and timely harvest. Second, relevant government departments in various places continued to support early rice production through measures such as unified seed distribution, centralized seedling raising, and specialized unified prevention and control of pests and diseases, effectively ensuring the stability and improvement of early rice yield per unit area. In 2015, due to the increase in yield per unit area, national early rice output increased by 146,000 tons (290 million jin).