China’s early rice output held steady at 28.29 million tonnes in 2026, marking the sixth straight year above 28 million tonnes despite heavy rainfall and typhoons, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.
The country's early rice yield per hectare averaged at 5,964 kg, down 48 kg from the previous year, data showed. The decrease was mainly attributed to persistent heavy rainfall during the heading and flowering stages in the major production areas south of the Yangtze River and in south China, followed by multiple typhoons during the harvesting period. Some low-lying farmland suffered waterlogging, and early rice in some areas lodged, affecting the maturity and harvesting process.
The total planting area of the early rice reached 4.744 million hectares this year, up 1,467 hectares from 2025.
Among major producing areas, Guangxi, Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi all reported output declines due to typhoon impacts, while Zhejiang, Hainan and Hubei saw slight increases from a year earlier.
Song Yongjun, director of the Agricultural Production Division of the Department of Rural Socio-Economic Survey at the National Bureau of Statistics, said that "the country has continued to increase support for grain production, implementing multiple policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers and boost rural prosperity. We have stabilized the minimum purchase price for early indica rice and subsidies for farmland protection, while increasing rotation subsidies, all of which have helped boost farmers' enthusiasm for planting. With our summer grain output increasing and early rice output remaining stable, we have laid a solid foundation for achieving a bumper grain harvest for the whole year, and provided strong support for a good start to the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030)."
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