Nationwide centralized seedling-raising area for early rice expanded by more than 4 million mu this year compared with last year

Ministry of Agriculture agricultural situation monitoring shows that this year the nationwide centralized seedling-raising area for early rice reached more than 26 million mu, an expansion of more than 4 million mu compared with last year.

Among this, Hunan's centralized seedling-raising area for early rice reached more than 11 million mu, an increase of 1 million mu over last year. Jiangxi's centralized seedling-raising area was 7 million mu, an increase of 1.5 million mu. Guangdong and Hubei's centralized seedling-raising areas reached 4.5 million mu and 3 million mu respectively, each increasing by 500,000 mu over the previous year.

Since March 20, temperatures in various places have risen rapidly, with alternating clear and rainy weather and suitable sunlight, accelerating the progress of early rice sowing and seedling raising. As of March 30, 68.24 million mu of early rice had been raised as seedlings nationwide (converted to field area), completing 78.4%.

Starting in late February, China's South China and Jiangnan regions entered the early rice seedling-raising and transplanting period one after another from south to north. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that this year's intended planting area for early rice is more than 87 million mu, an increase of more than 300,000 mu over last year.

The Ministry of Agriculture stated that although the early rice sowing period was somewhat delayed due to continuous overcast and rainy weather in early and mid-March, various places seized the favorable opportunity of recent temperature recovery and sufficient water sources to soak seeds in time, sow during clear weather, and accelerate seedling raising and transplanting progress, and the overall situation for early rice production is relatively good.