Drought may reduce China's wheat output

Sun Zhe in Global Times (China): Drought in the country's major wheat growing regions since late last year might reduce winter output, after seven years of consecutive production increases, said analysts.

The nation's top three wheat producing regions - Henan, Shandong and Hebei provinces - have been in a near continuous drought since late last year. Responsible for more than half of the country's wheat output, the agricultural crisis in these provinces is expected to push up wheat prices in 2010, said Zhang Yanlin research director with CIC Consulting in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province in a report released Friday.

These three provinces are among the worst hit areas and make up more than 90 percent of the nation's wheat output. Rainfall in these provinces dropped more than 80 percent from the annual average, the worst since 1970, according to water resource department records….

A field in Gushi, Henan Province, China, shot by sinopitt, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported