China on alert for cold weather damage to spring vegetable crops
- Agricultural teams have been dispatched to assess damage and advise farmers
- Production areas have been hit by a series of cold waves with more frosty temperatures expected this week
Agricultural advisers have been sent out across China to help farmers minimise damage from freezing weather to their spring vegetable crops.
The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences said on Friday that 40 teams of experts had fanned out across the country to assess damage and offer technical advice.
“The country has continued to experience extreme meteorological disasters and several sudden temperature drops, which has had a great impact on our vegetable production,” said the academy, a research organisation affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Authorities are expecting more low temperatures this week, with the National Meteorological Centre issuing its highest alert for cold temperatures on Sunday for a third straight day.
Daily average or minimum temperatures in parts of central-southern and northwestern China are expected to be 5 to 7 degrees Celsius lower than seasonal norms from Sunday through to Wednesday morning, according to the centre.
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The academy said that in some northern parts of the country, production of cucumbers and capsicums was expected to fall by 10 to 20 per cent.
It said the teams would monitor weather changes, “minimise” losses to farmers and ensure supplies of vegetables in spring were “stable and balanced”.
The teams have already visited areas surrounding Beijing and at least 10 provinces, including Shandong in the east – the country’s biggest vegetable producer – and Henan, which has the most land under vegetable cultivation.
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China’s central-southern and northwestern provinces contributed nearly 40 per cent of the country’s total vegetable output in 2022, according to a report published in November by Sublime China Information, an agricultural information and consulting services provider.
The leadership says the Chinese people’s “rice bowls” should remain firmly in their own hands and domestic supplies of produce safeguarded.
Last week, authorities issued an orange cold wave alert, the highest level in the three-tier system, from Tuesday to Thursday, with temperatures in some regions plummeting by more than 20 degrees Celsius.
