Early-season rice output rises, positive signal for full-year harvest
The sowing area of earlyseason rice in China is “stable while increasing” and rice output has maintained growth, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday, estimating that the total output of early-season rice in 2022 will reach 28.12 million tons, up 0.4 percent from the same period last year.
Amid China’s battle against record heat waves and drought, which have put strains on the fall harvest of the world’s most populous country, as well as rising global uncertainty, the early harvest has sent a positive signal in ensuring grain prices and stabilizing expectations, analysts said, while stressing that the impact of extreme weather conditions is “shortterm and controllable.”
The output prediction is based on a sampling survey of the early-season rice harvest in 10 provincial-level regions. At the national level, the total planting area for early-season rice hit 47.551 million hectares in 2022, gaining 0.4 percent year-on-year, as authorities raised the minimum purchase price, scaled up incentives for major grain production bases, and beefed up capital support, which fully stimulated farmers’ willingness to plant rice, the NBS said.
The yield of early-season rice is 5,914.3 kilograms per hectare in 2022, down 0.1 percent year-on-year, due to previous low temperatures and seasonal heavy rains.
“The harvest of summer grain and the stable output of early-season rice have laid a solid foundation for the fullyear grain harvest, amid the global pandemic and a complicated international situation.
“It provides a firm base for stabilizing the macroeconomy and maintaining economic operations at a reasonable range,” the NBS said.
Li Guoxiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that although the output of early-season rice does not account for a large share of full-year grain production, the stable production has sent an encouraging sign for the fall harvest, one of the most important planting periods of the year.