National summer grain output this year rose 3.3% year on year

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on the 15th show that the national summer grain total output in 2015 was 141.066 million tons (282.13 billion jin), an increase of 4.470 million tons (894 million jin) over 2014, up 3.3% year on year.

Hou Rui, a senior statistician of the Rural Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that the increase in summer grain output in 2015 benefited from an increase in area and higher yields per unit area. In 2015, the national summer grain sown area was 27,692.3 thousand hectares, up 0.4% over 2014; the increase in sown area raised output by 548,000 tons, contributing 12.3% of the output increase.

Hou Rui said the increase in summer grain sown area was mainly affected by three factors: First, the state continued to implement the minimum purchase price policy in major wheat-producing areas, which played an important role in stabilizing the wheat sown area. Second, the central finance continued to increase support for strengthening agriculture and benefiting farmers, and promptly allocated various subsidy funds for 2015, including direct grain subsidies and improved seed subsidies. Third, the structure of sown area was adjusted considerably. This was mainly because major summer grain-producing areas reduced the planted area of cotton and summer-harvested rapeseed and increased the planting of wheat and other summer grains.

In 2015, the national summer grain yield per hectare reached 5,094.0 kg; higher yield per unit area raised output by 3.922 million tons, contributing 87.7% of the output increase. The main reasons for the increase in summer grain yield per unit area were strong policy support, good weather and light disaster losses.

Summer grain includes summer-harvested cereals, pulses and tubers. Among them, summer-harvested cereals mainly include wheat, corn and barley; summer-harvested pulses mainly include broad beans, peas and field beans; tubers include potatoes and sweet potatoes.