Meteorological disasters cause 50 bln kg of grain losses in China annually: statistics

Meteorological disasters have been blamed for the destruction of at least 50 billion kilograms of grain in China annually, according to official statistics.

Climate change is having an increasing impact on food and agriculture, with each rising degree Celsius causing 10 percent of grain losses,according to figures released Sunday at a promotion activity in Nanjing for the 36th World Food Day.

China is one of the countries most affected by meteorological disasters, with droughts causing about 60 percent of all the losses in the country, according to officials at the activity.

Xu Xiaofeng, deputy head of China Meteorological Administration, said that immediate measures need to be taken to address the issue.

"We need to play down the effect of meteorological disasters in grain production, harvest, storage, processing, packaging, transportation and consumption," Xu said.

China managed to diminish grain losses with a variety of measures in the past few years, including building new granaries and repairing old ones, as well as upgrading transportation equipment, said Xu Ming, deputy head of State Administration of Grain. Endi