National Bureau of Statistics interprets 0.9% grain output increase in 2014: stable policy

According to a message on the National Bureau of Statistics website, Hou Rui, a senior statistician in the Rural Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, today interpreted the grain production situation. Hou Rui said that the 0.9% increase in national grain output in 2014 was mainly because the central government continued to introduce a series of policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers, and the policies were relatively stable.

According to national grain production data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's total grain output in 2014 was 60710 million tons (12142 billion jin), an increase of 516 million tons (10.3 billion jin) over 2013, or 0.9%. Hou Rui said that the main reasons for the grain output increase in 2014 were as follows.

Stable policies and measures in place. Since the beginning of this year, the central government has continued to introduce a series of policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers, pre-allocated the agricultural “four subsidies” early, and released the minimum purchase prices for wheat and rice early, continued to implement the reward policy for major grain-producing counties, actively promoted the transformation of agricultural production and operation methods, and focused on cultivating new agricultural production entities and other policy measures, further mobilizing enthusiasm for grain production in various sectors and promoting grain production. The announcement showed that in 2014, the national total grain sown area was 112738 thousand hectares (1.691 billion mu), an increase of 783 thousand hectares (11.74 million mu) over the previous year, or 0.7%.

⟦NL> This year's increased grain sown area mainly came from the adjustment of planting structure, especially the reduction of cotton and increase of wheat in some areas of the Jianghuai and Jianghan regions, and the change from single-season rice to double-season rice in parts of Jianghan and other areas.

Strong scientific and technological support and strengthened field management. In 2014, all localities continued to promote the application of improved varieties, continued to implement the “subsidy policy for key technologies for agricultural disaster prevention and mitigation, stable production, and increased output”, increased relevant subsidy efforts, and actively promoted the normalization of subsidies for key technologies with significant practical results. At the same time, in response to problems encountered in the grain production process, measures such as “one spray and three preventions” for wheat, centralized rice seedling raising, and disease and pest control were taken in a timely manner to strengthen field management. These measures promoted the improvement of the per-unit yield level of grain. In 2014, the national average per-unit yield of grain crops was 5385 kg/hectare (359 kg/mu), an increase of 8 kg/hectare (0.56 kg/mu) over the previous year, or 0.2%.

Local drought was relatively severe, but the overall disaster situation was lighter than the previous year. Although the disaster situation in some areas was relatively severe this year, especially the northern region suffered from “choking drought”, and autumn grain production was affected. However, on the one hand, because hilly and mountainous areas with poor irrigation conditions were more severely affected by drought, areas with good water source conditions were not greatly affected; on the other hand, because governments at all levels made great efforts in disaster relief, and after mid-August the drought in most affected areas was lifted or alleviated, the impact of drought on corn production was reduced to a certain extent.

From the perspective of the climatic conditions for winter wheat and late rice, the meteorological conditions in the main production areas during their growth period were close to normal, and in some areas were even better than the previous year, which was favorable for the growth and development of the relevant crops and yield formation. During the growth period of winter wheat, the coordination of light, temperature, and water conditions was relatively good, grain filling was sufficient, and the thousand-grain weight increased. In particular, there was no long period of cloudy and rainy weather or high-temperature dry-hot weather during the critical maturity period, and there was no large-scale lodging or large-scale disease and pest outbreak, which was extremely favorable for increasing wheat per-unit yield. For late rice, except that northern Jiangnan was affected by low temperature, cloudy and rainy weather and other factors from sowing and seedling raising to the tillering stage, most rice areas and most periods had suitable light and heat, which was conducive to the growth of late rice.

Overall, this year's climatic conditions were relatively good, and the disaster situation was lighter than the previous year. According to statistics from civil affairs departments, from January to September this year, the national crop-affected area was 24899 thousand hectares, a decrease of 10041 thousand hectares from the same period of the previous year, down 29%; the total crop failure area was 2854 thousand hectares, a decrease of 400 thousand hectares from the same period of the previous year, down 12%.