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Earthquake aftershocks to Sichuan
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-26 11:32

Around 50,000 greenhouses have collapsed while 600,000 bio-gas pools have been damaged.

Because the disaster also destroyed irrigation systems in some areas, up to 100,000 hectares of rice paddies might have to be used to grow alternative crops, he says.

He says the repair work would be very difficult.

As the country's leading agricultural province, Sichuan provided 6 percent of the nation's total grain output, including 5 percent of the national total summer grains, 8 percent of the total vegetable oil crops and 5 percent of the total vegetable production, says Wei.

The total grain production is expected to be reduced 8 to 10 percent in Sichuan this year.

But, Wei says the quake has had a limited impact on farm production nationwide, adding he had full confidence in a continued steady national supply of grain and other major products and stable prices.

Most of the 12.5 million livestock killed in the quake were mostly poultry.

The poultry losses were a small fraction of the 1.5 billion poultry that the province hoped to produce in 2008, says Wei.

And roughly 8,000 tons of fish have died or escaped, after 2,000 hectares of fishery ponds were damaged.

Sichuan also accounts for 11.6 percent of the nation's pork production and the disaster has raised concerns over the already steep pre-quake rise of pork prices and inflation. The price of pork is currently 22 to 27 yuan per kilogram. As of April the consumer price index (CPI) was 8.5 percent.

In the short term, Sichuan pork exports will be reduced by 50 percent while the nation's pork prices may rise 6 percent, says Chu Jianfang, analyst of CITIC Securities. She adds that pork price rises may drive the CPI up 0.3 percent.

Wei says the ministry will compensate for the agricultural losses by stepping up production in other areas and closely monitoring farm produce supplies in the affected areas.

According to statistics by the Ministry of Agriculture, at present, the agricultural production market remains stable without any large fluctuations.