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BEIJING — China has allocated 1.6 billion yuan ($253 million) to strengthen field management for winter wheat, the country’s finance ministry said, in an effort to bolster security of food supply.
Part of the money will be used to stabilize output of winter wheat in five main production regions, including Hebei and Shandong provinces, where planting of the grain was delayed, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website.
The central government will also allocate the money to about a dozen main production regions to prevent and control the impact off extreme weather on wheat.
China’s agriculture minister has said the country’s winter wheat crop condition is potentially the worst in history, after heavy rainfall delayed the planting of about a third of the normal wheat acreage, but added he was confident that a bumper summer grain harvest can be secured. ( $1 = 6.3142 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kenneth Maxwell)
financialpost.com