(Yicai Global) July 14 -- China’s harvest of summer crops, which refer to cereals, legumes and tubers that are harvested in the summer, jumped 2.1 percent from last year to hit record tonnage, largely due to higher yields and a greater area of land planted, according to the latest statistics.

The summer crop harvest, which accounts for around 20 percent of the total grain harvest each year, reached 145.82 million tons, the National Bureau of Statistics said today. Wheat accounted for 134.3 million tons of this, a year-on-year gain of 2 percent.

Policy support and the rising price of grain has made farmers more willing to plant, said Li Suoqiang, head of the NBS’ Department of Rural Surveys. Land that went unplanted in northeastern Shandong and eastern Anhui provinces last year due to drought was sown this year.

Some 26.4 million hectares were planted, up 1 percent from last year and the first time in five years that the area of land sown has increased, the NBS said. Nearly 23 million tons of this was wheat, an increase of 0.9 percent. The yield per hectare advanced 1.1 percent to 5.5 tons, the NBS said.

Good weather, better management and improved conditions are the main reasons behind the improved yield per hectare in summer crops this year, Li said.

Editor: Kim Taylor