Farm crops, particularly wheat, are ailing from serious plant
diseases and insect pests following an unusually warm winter across
China.
Information from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture shows that
nationwide, 1.69 million ha of farm crops in 371 counties had
developed plant diseases up to April 5, up 19 percent from the
previous year.
The agricultural bureau of east China's Shandong Province says
one quarter of the province's 4.17 million-hectare sown wheat area
has been affected by diseases such as yellow rust and insect pests
including wheat aphids and mites.
Shandong, on the east China seaboard, is the second largest
grain production base in China after Henan Province in central
China.
Wang Yuzheng, a researcher with the Shandong Provincial
Agricultural Bureau, reckoned that global warming and El Nino could
make this year the hottest since China began keeping meteorological
records.
"High temperatures and drought are very much on the cards this
year. Plant diseases and insect pests -- more serious than normal
years or starting earlier than usual -- are an indication of things
to come," said Wang.
The agricultural bureau of Dongying, a city in the Yellow River
Delta under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province, said it
inspected 660 sites and found locust eggs in 50 of them. Locust egg
density has reached 6.3 per sq m, up from less than 4 a year
ago.
The Dongying agricultural bureau predicted that locusts will
affect 113,333 hectares of crops in the city this summer, slightly
more than last year.
(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2007)
