According to the China National Grain & Oils Information Center the country’s rice output will fall 0.7% year on year in 2013 to 202.8 million metric tons. The decline is prompting the world’s biggest rice consuming country to lower the bar on rice imports in order to ensure the country’s food supply. After decades of pursuing higher productivity, this decline is brought on by various factors. According to the Academy of the state Administration of Grain adverse weather conditions in key rice growing areas such as Hunan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang have cut into output. And after decades of heavy fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide use the country’s rice farmland is becoming exhausted with rice yields per hectare falling 1.7% to 6.7 tons in 2013. Rice farmland is also being lost to industrialization and residential housing, and the logistics of the domestic transportation system within the industry is outdated and holding back efficiency. To protect the industry and promote cultivation the government has implemented domestic price floors but after a decade of increases domestic prices are well above the international market. However with increased imports coming into the country these prices may be capped. To read more:
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