China's food security will not be affected despite floods that have mainly struck southern China and upcoming typhoons and rainfall, China's Ministry of Emergency Management said on Thursday, noting that disaster relief measures will offset the losses caused by water logging.
Floods this year have caused damage to 6 million hectares of crops in China, including 1.1 million hectares of complete crop failure, mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, Zhou Xuewen, deputy head of the ministry, said at Thursday's press conference.
However, Zhou added that the floods will not pose a threat to food security, as many early season crops had been harvested before the floods, while makeup planting after the water logging will also offset losses.
"In East China's Jiangxi Province, about one-third of the crops had been reaped, while neighboring Anhui Province had harvested even more, as floods came later than they did in Jiangxi," Zhou said, noting that the disaster-stricken areas are currently rushing to plant late crops or cash crops, in an effort to minimize the impact.
"There is a pattern of more rainfall bringing more harvest," Zhou said, explaining that China is a country of limited water resources, and more rainfall than usual is in general beneficial to agriculture.
Floods and water logging may cause crop failure in a region, but abundant rainfall will mean ample irrigation in general, boosting harvest in other areas, analysts said.
"With multiple disaster relief measures being taken, and advanced agricultural technologies applied, China's food security will not be threatened by floods this year," Zhou said.
This year's floods have affected 63 million people and caused direct economic losses of 179 billion yuan ($25.8 billion), according to data released by the Ministry of Emergency Management on Thursday.
Global Times
