THE WEEK
Bumper Early Rice Harvest
Source: Peking Review, No. 38, September 21, 1973
Transcribed for
www.wengewang.org China gathered a rich harvest of early rice this year. Both total and per-hectare yields hit an all-time high. They were above those of 1972, itself a year of bumper harvest.
Early rice, which is transplanted in spring and harvested in mid-summer, has a comparatively short growing period. It is raised principally in 11 provinces, one municipality and one autonomous region south of the Yangtze where two crops of rice are planted annually. A rich harvest of early rice is important in raising grain output for the whole year. In Yunnan and Kweichow Provinces located in the southwest plateau, the total output of early rice was over 30 per cent higher than that of last year, while on Hainan Island it was more than 20 per cent higher. In other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions there were also increases in output.
A general rise in per-hectare yield was an outstanding feature in early-rice growing this year. In ten counties on Shanghai's outskirts, the average yield was as high as six tons per hectare. A 10 per cent increase in average yield per hectare was achieved on more than 230,000 hectares of early rice planted in the Soochow region of Kiangsu Province.
