China’s grain output falls

China’s national grain output stands at 616 million tonnes in 2016 which is less by 5.2 million tonnes i.e. about 0.8 percent as compared to last year as per the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The country will import more grains as the grain planting area fell considerably by 3.15 lakh hectares and even the per unit yield fell by 30.7 kilograms per hectare.

The primary reason behind the same is the uneven supply and demand among various varieties of grains which reduced their planting areas in favour of soy and made use of grain as feedstuff and oil. Latter change had significant impact on the high-yield grain. Also extreme weather conditions like drought and heavy rain also affected the productivity of the grain. This has been topped by the huge urbanisation trend which has been converting the agricultural land into urban settlements.

China has been forced to increase its grain imports to feed the massively growing population of over 1.3 million. Barring imports the supply of grains is 25 million tonnes less than what is required. Chinese Agricultural Minister has said that the rising imports are due to shortages of some specific grains  and lower prices in international markets.