November 8, 2011

China had harvested about 67.87 million hectares of autumn grain crops by October 24, or 87.9% of the total planting area, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, the country has planted autumn and winter crops on 30.67 million hectares of cropland, accounting for 65% of the planned planting area, including 16.93 million hectares for winter wheat and 4.53 million hectares for winter rape.

The ministry also predicted that winter wheat planting acreage in 2011 would rise about 66,667 hectares over last year to 22.67 million hectares as a further increase in this year's minimum purchase prices has stimulated farmers' planting enthusiasm.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) earlier said that China was expected to achieve bumper harvests of autumn grain and its grain output in the full year of 2011 would likely to increase over last year.

According to the NBS, the country produced 126.27 million tonnes of summer grain this year, up 2.5% on-year. Meanwhile, its early rice output gained 1.43 million tonnes or 4.5% to 32.76 million tonnes.

China's grain output rose 2.9% on-year to reach 546.61 million tonnes in 2010.