Nation likely to achieve grain targets

China is still likely to achieve the target of grain harvest this year despite the lingering drought in southern part of the country since July and floods in the north, an official was quoted by People's Daily as saying Sunday.

It is possible that the grain harvest target for the whole year can be achieved if measures to fight against natural calamities are strictly executed, Yu Xinrong, Vice Minister of Agriculture, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The natural calamities only have impacted autumn grain crops in certain regions, and crops in most other areas such as northern and northwestern parts of China have grown well, Yu noted.

By August 16, over 100 million mu (6.67 million hectares) of farmland in 13 provinces in southern China have been affected by the drought, which is the most serious natural calamity to happen in the last 10 years, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Floods in the northeastern provinces of the country have affected over 10 million mu of farmland, the ministry said.

To deal with the severe weather conditions and ensure harvest this year, the government has adopted several measures to support agricultural development, such as allocation of 1 billion yuan ($163.4 million) to a special fund to accelerate the ripening of rice in July, according to Yu.

The central government also allocated an extra of 500 million yuan in August for pest control and re-planting after the drought in Autumn.

An expansion of plantation areas for the autumn grain crops this year will also help to meet the harvest target for the year. The total area for autumn grain crops increased by 8 million mu this year compared with the previous year, Yu said.

China's summer grain output already saw a slight growth this year, reaching 131.89 million tons, up 1.5 percent compared with the previous year, official data showed.

China's total grain production last year hit 589.6 million tons, the highest in the past nine years.