China's grain planting area shows moderate increase

China's oil-bearing crop increased slightly this year, and the intended planting area of grain for the whole year also saw moderate rise, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA).

Ye Zhenqin, an official with the MoA, said that it is still hopeful for China to achieve bumper harvests this year if weather conditions are not very unfavourable in the following period.

Data from MoA show that the country's winter wheat and rapeseed planting area respectively reached 22.53 million hectares and 6.87 million hectares this year, up 190,000 hectares and 130,000 hectares over last year.

Ye noted that the government's preferential agricultural policies have boosted farmers' growing enthusiasm, adding that the intended grain planting area this year is expected to gain 470,000 hectares to 109 million hectares.