| Chinese Agriculture |
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| Sunday,March 22,2009 Posted: 18:39 BJT(39 GMT) |
| From:Mofcom Article type:Reproduced |
In 2007, the sown area of grain was 105.53 million hectares, an increase of 700,000 hectares over the previous year; the sown area of cotton was 5.59 million hectares, an increase of 70,000 hectares; the sown area of oil-bearing crops was 10.94 million hectares, a decline of 600,000 hectares; the sown area of sugar crops was 1.67 million hectares, an increase of 100,000 hectares.
The total output of grain in 2007 was 501.5 million tons, an increase of 3.5 million tons or up 0.7 percent over the previous year. Of this total, the output of summer crops was 115.34 million tons, up 1.3 percent, and that of the early rice was 31.96 million tons, up 0.3 percent. The output of autumn grain was 354.2 million tons, an increase of 0.6 percent.
In 2007, the output of cotton was 7.6 million tons, a growth of 1.3 percent over the previous year; that of oil-bearing crops was 24.61 million tons, down 4.2 percent; that of sugar crops was 111.1 million tons, an increase of 11.4 percent; that of tobacco was 2.39 million tons, down 3.9 percent, and that of tea was 1.14 million tons, up 10.9 percent.
The total output of meat for the year reached 68 million tons, down 3.5 percent. Of this total, the output of pork fell 9.2 percent, and that of beef and mutton went up by 6.1 percent and 5.8 percent respectively. The total output of aquatic products was 47.37 million tons, up 3.3 percent. The total production of timber for the year reached 69.74 million cubic meters, an increase of 5.5 percent.
More than 1.07 million hectares of farmland was increased with effective irrigation systems and 1.36 million hectares of farmland was increased with water-saving irrigation systems.
In 2007, the Central Government invested more than 420 billion yuan in programs concerning rural areas, agriculture and farmers. The government paid great attention to the investment in comprehensive agricultural development and the protection of arable lands. According to the overall arrangements for developing modern agriculture and building a new socialist countryside, the country enhanced agricultural infrastructure construction, especially in major grain-producing regions, raised agricultural productivity and promoted industrialized operation of agriculture.
In 2007, the government released a series of incentive measures to boost grain production. For example, the subsidies on crop planting were increased, in addition to scraping the agricultural tax. Besides, the government invested more in the research and development of farming techniques to improve the quality of agricultural products.
In spite of all those achievements, China’s agriculture is still plagued by a weak foundation, restraints of natural environment and decrease in arable lands. In 2007, the supplies of agricultural products, especially pork and eggs, failed to meet the demand. In the meantime, agricultural production was increasingly affected by fluctuations in the international market, the investment in the agricultural infrastructure was far from enough, and public administration and public service in rural areas could not adapt to the needs of farmers.
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