context: Officials are lauding a bumper harvest, despite a year of natural disasters. Although it is difficult to verify the figure for grain-planted areas and yields, the grain market is giving out quite different signals: corn prices keep rising, hitting new highs since 2015 and overall grain markets are very volatile this year.
Citing optimistic numbers for the harvests of summer grain, early rice and the upcoming autumn grain, Wei Baigang 魏百刚 MARA (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs) Department of Development Planning director predicts a record harvest in 2020, adding up to more than 650 million tonnes of annual grain output for the sixth consecutive year. The good harvests have come along with changing planting structure, said Wei at the 21 Oct press conference, noting that
- high-quality wheat accounted for 35.8 percent of total wheat land under cultivation
- high-quality rice areas increased
- soybean areas expanded for the fifth consecutive year
Increasing grain acreage contributed to over 50 percent of the growth in output, says Liu Lihua 刘莉华 MARA Department of Crop Farming Administration deputy director. Ag production also survived pandemic-led lockdowns, the invasion of fall armyworm, flooding in southern provinces, and typhoons in the northeast. In addition, ag was less affected by drought this year, which used to explain half of the annual grain loss, says Liu.
Hu Chunhua 胡春华 Politburo member and vice-premier urges the planting of autumn and winter crops, above all winter wheat and oilseed rape, to lay a good foundation for next year.