August 23, 2012

China allocates additional funds to safeguard grain producing regions against pests

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announces an additional US$31.75 million in financial aid to support the country's pest control efforts.

According to a statement posted on MOC's website, the funds will be used to safeguard cornfields in northern - northeastern areas of China from armyworm, and rice-producing regions of the southern part of the country from rice blast disease and rice plant-hoppers.

The MOC has directed local authorities to work with pest control organisations in order to improve results as well as accelerate supervision to boost the efficiency of the funds.

Autumn crops in the current year will have to face more pests and diseases in comparison to the past few years due to heavy rainfall, said the ministry on August 20 at a work conference held on disease and pest control.

Earlier this month, Han Changfu, China's Minister of Agriculture had said that authorities at all levels should strengthen surveillance and prevention capacity to counter pest outbreaks and guarantee a good harvest this autumn.

The recent outbreak of armyworms in major grain producing regions in the northern and north-eastern parts of the country has posed a severe threat to the production of corn and rice in China, he said.