BEIJING (AP) - Severe drought in northern China will cause a drop in this year's domestic grain harvest compared to 1996. But the yield will be enough to feed the country, a senior official said Wednesday.
Protracted heat waves and sparse rainfall have affected harvests of corn, cotton, sorghum, rice and some wheat - putting the record grain harvest set in 1996 out of reach for this year, said Zhang Xinmin of the State Statistical Bureau.
China harvested 540 million tons of grain last year, due to investments in agriculture, rising food prices, government subsidies and wet weather.
Zhang, head of the bureau's agricultural section, said he could not predict the size of this year's harvest because no one knows when the drought will ease.
"The Henan, Shandong and Hebei areas are facing difficulty planting crops," he said. "Since May, this situation has spread to the north and central areas."
Excess reserves from last year's harvest have pushed market prices lower, helping China curb inflation. But the government has been forced to set its own purchase prices above market levels to ensure that farmers continue to grow grain.
Zhang would not give an estimate of how much central and local governments would spend this year to subsidize grain production, but he acknowledged the cost is high.
"It's easy to say we need to protect the enthusiasm and interests of the farmers, but in reality it's very difficult for us," he said.
China's goal is to produce 550 million tons of grain by 2000, making the country self-sufficient in basic agricultural products, he said.
The grain supply is a politically potent issue in China. The ruling Communists have declared self-sufficiency in staple grains a top priority, aware of the tradition of dynastic decline linked to crop failures.
While northern China has sweltered in the drought-inducing heat wave, floods triggered by persistent heavy rains in much of the south have killed at least 142 people and injured thousands of others.