Crops Across China, Esp. Wheat, Suffering More From Disease After Unusually Warm Winter - Xinhua

[hatrack]

Farm crops, particularly wheat, are ailing from serious plant diseases and insect pests following an unusually warm winter across China. Information from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture shows that nationwide, 1.69 million ha of farm crops in 371 counties had developed plant diseases up to April 5, up 19 percent from the previous year.

The agricultural bureau of east China's Shandong Province says one quarter of the province's 4.17 million-hectare sown wheat area has been affected by diseases such as yellow rust and insect pests including wheat aphids and mites. Shandong, on the east China seaboard, is the second largest grain production base in China after Henan Province in central China.

Wang Yuzheng, a researcher with the Shandong Provincial Agricultural Bureau, reckoned that global warming and El Nino could make this year the hottest since China began keeping meteorological records.

"High temperatures and drought are very much on the cards this year. Plant diseases and insect pests -- more serious than normal years or starting earlier than usual -- are an indication of things to come," said Wang.

EDIT

http://english.people.com.cn/200704/18/eng20070418_367600.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Does that tie in with the poisoned pet food?

:(

[Shoelace]

2. possibly - if they have to use more chemical sprays

seems like a possibility if they are spraying the heck out of these crops to rid them of the various diseases now being created by global climate change.
I just hear something about rice products in pet food being affected too. Will have to check into that.

[Nihil]

3. Alternatively ...

Less water flowing through the river but the same amount (or more)
of heavy metal pollution being dumped into those rivers means that
the concentration of pollutants is significantly higher when the
water is used downstream for irrigating crops ... especially where
people are abusing the nominal "limits" on both allowed pollution
and abstraction levels ...

[kestrel91316]

4. Their wheat is getting less abundant and more costly. NO WONDER

they felt compelled to spike it with melamine................

(kestrel wanders off, muttering to herself about smoking guns...)