China 2011 cotton planting area seen up

China's cotton planting area this year is expected to rise 6.6 percent from 2010, said China Cotton Association on Thursday. Total cotton area is estimated at 5.472 million hectares, said the association in a statement published on its website, adding that cotton planting is nearly complete.
Earlier this year, the association expected cotton area in 2011 to rise 9.8 percent on the year. The Ministry of Agriculture said in March that China's cotton planting acreage this year was likely to grow by 5.4 percent from last year - the first increase after three years of declines.
CHINA EXPECTS BUMPER WHEAT HARVEST China, the world's top wheat producer, is likely to reap a bumper wheat harvest in 2011 despite drought earlier this year in most of its wheat-growing areas in the north, the agriculture ministry said.
China's winter wheat, accounting for more than 90 percent of the country's total wheat harvest, may increase for the eighth year, agriculture minister Han Changfu was cited as saying in a report posted on the ministry's web site. Han did not give any figures. Han cited a survey as saying that expanded wheat acreage coupled with higher yields would contribute to the bumper harvest, while higher output in irrigated areas would offset lower output in drought-stricken zones.
China's north-west provinces, which were hit by drought last year and produced less, were expected to contribute more this year, Han said in the country's top wheat growing province of Henan as farmers were harvesting the crop. A good wheat harvest is key for China in cooling expectation of higher food prices, particularly as drought continued in most of the central areas along the Yangtze River, threatening early-season rice. The 115.8 million tonne wheat harvest in 2010 accounted for about 20 percent of China's total grain harvest.