BEIJING: China's agriculture ministry is urging local authorities to speed up the harvesting and drying of damaged grain after heavy rain flooded fields of ripe wheat in the nation's most important growing region.
authorities should send emergency teams to drain water from fields, speed up access by harvesters and mobilise drying machinery to save as much of the crop as possible, said the ministry of agriculture, which includes the town squares and playgrounds, to save as much of the crop as possible. China, the world's top wheat grower, had predicted a bumper crop this year. But heavy rain in the southern half of central Henan province has raised concerns.
In 2021, Henan produced 28 per cent of China's crop of 137 million tons.
Darin Friedrichs, co-founder of Sitonia Consulting, said it was too early to say how much output would be affected, but the harvest is definitely going to be affected.
Some wheat in southern Henan has sprouted after the rain, the government-backed Henan Daily said on Wednesday.