Henan Province in central China harvested a record 30.6 billion kg of wheat this summer.

This was a rise of 660 million kg wheat, or 2.2 percent, over last year, said the survey team of the National Bureau of Statistics in the province.

Dubbed as "barn of China", Henan produces one quarter of the country's wheat.

Wei Zhongsheng, chief economist with Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture, cited a number of factors for the record harvest.

An extra fund of 1.07 billion yuan (about US$153 million), a record high, was spent in offering farmers subsidies for using improved varieties of wheat or other crops, and purchasing farm machines, this year. Also, 5.26 million hectares of wheat, a record, were sown, according to Wei.

Zhu Mengzhou, chief of Henan Provincial Department of Agriculture, said the harvest laid a good foundation for meeting the province's grain production target of 50 billion kg this year and was of importance to stabilizing grain prices and guaranteeing state grain security.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2008)