BEIJING (Reuters) -Recent rainfall in China’s northeastern breadbasket has relieved drought across most of the region and replenished soil moisture, an agriculture ministry official said on Friday, adding that autumn grain is maturing at a normal rate.
The area hit by drought in the northeast exceeded 20 million mu (1.33 million hectares) in May and June, when it was at its worst, Pan Wenbo, director of the agriculture ministry’s Planting Management Department, told a press briefing.
China is the world’s second biggest corn producer and a large portion of the crop comes from the northeast.
Rainfall since late June has effectively replenished soil moisture and “basically eased the drought”, with only 1 million mu (66,666 hectares) of farmland still affected in Inner Mongolia, he said.
The ministry is making preparations for drought later in the summer, and for early frost, both priority concerns for the northeast, Pan said.
The area planted with corn has increased this year due to the good market price, he said.
(Reporting by Ningwei Qin and Dominique Patton; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Robert Birsel)
