Farmers watch as harvested grain is loaded onto a truck in Yongfeng county, Ji’an city, East China’s Jiangxi Province on July 4, 2024. China is in its peak summer harvest season, and the country is expecting a bumper summer harvest, contributing to the global food supply. Photo: cnsphoto

With the sown area of summer grain remaining stable and the yield per unit area increasing, the summer grain harvest in 2024, which increased by 2.5 percent year-on-year, has laid a solid foundation for stable grain production throughout the year, further enabling China to realize its grain output goal and providing support for sustained economic development.

China's output of summer grain totaled 149.78 million tons in 2024, an increase of 3.627 million tons, or 2.5 percent, over 2023 levels, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Friday.

Among them, wheat output stood at 138.22 million tons, an increase of 2.7 percent, or 3.658 million tons, over 2023. Summer grain is the first season of annual grain production in China, a bulk of which is winter wheat.

China has been an active participant in the international agricultural market. In the first half of 2024, China imported $109.54 billion worth of agricultural products, according to statistics released by the General Administration of Customs on Friday.

The sown area for summer grain remained stable at 26.613 million hectares, an increase of 45,000 hectares over 2023. The output of summer grain per unit area was 5,628 kilograms per hectare, an increase of 135.4 kilograms per hectare or 2.5 percent over 2023. Among which, wheat yield per unit area was 5985.8 kilograms per hectare, an increase of 2.6 percent, according to NBS data.

The latest harvest statistics mean that China has completed 23 percent of its annual grain output target - which is set at 1.3 trillion jin (650 million tons).

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the summer grain output accounts for one-fifth, or 20 percent, of annual grain output.

China has always placed food security high on its economic agenda.

China's summer grain harvest in 2024 laid a solid foundation for stable grain production throughout the year, and provided solid support for consolidating and enhancing the good trend of economic recovery and continuously promoting high-quality development, Wang Guirong, an official from the NBS, said on Friday, as posted on NBS website.

In recent years, China has stepped up efforts to protect and develop arable land and stabilized the sown area. These efforts have yielded sustained results and laid a solid foundation for food security, Li Guoxiang, a research fellow at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Analysts also believe that the increase in harvest and the yield per unit area is largely attributed to the application of new technologies in the farming sector, as China emphasizes the role of scientific and technological development in ensuring food security and promoting rural revitalization.

Harvesters work during an activity organized by the local goverment to demonstrate agricultural machines in Caigongzhuang Township in North China's Tianjin. Summer harvest in north China's Tianjin has begun. Modern agricultural technology and machinery have been applied in the region to help local farmers increase yield and attain a bumper harvest. Photo: Xinhua

Aided by increased contributions from agricultural machinery and technology, China has secured a grain harvest of over 650 million tons for the ninth consecutive year in 2023, Xinhua News Agency reported.

In recent years, China has vigorously strengthened scientific and technological innovation and application, and the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress has increased from 54.5 percent in 2012 to more than 63 percent at present, according to media reports.

Global Times