February 27, 2009

China's east coastal Fujian Province plans to increase sown area to 19.3 million mu and raise its grain yield to more than 7 million tonnes in 2009, in accordance with the latest grain production notice released by the local government.

Fujian's three major grain production cities of Nanping, Sanming, and Longyan are required to add their sown area of grains to 9.98 million mu in total, accounting for 51.7 percent of the province's total. They also have to increase their grain yield to 3.7 million tonnes, making up 52.86 percent of the province's total.

In 2008, Fujian's sown area of grains reached 20.485 million mu, increasing by 33,000 mu over the previous year. Meanwhile, total yield reached 7.3439 million tonnes, an on-year increase of 140,700 tonnes.

However, the consumption of grains in the province was significantly higher than the yield, reaching around 15 million tonnes annually.