CHINESE CROPS HIT BY FROST, SNOW AND RAIN IN MARCH
Wheat and rapeseed crops in east China
suffered considerable damage because of frost during a spell of
unusually cold weather in late March, the China Daily said.
    It said average temperatures for the last 10 days of March
in most of east China were three to five degrees centigrade
below average. Snow fell in Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei and Henan,
making early rice sowing difficult.
    Heavy snow blanketted central and south Jilin and north
Liaoning, leaving farmland too muddy for spring ploughing and
sowing, the paper said.
    The paper said rainfall during the last 10 days of March in
areas south of the Yangtze had been much higher than normal.
    Heavy rain fell last Sunday in parts of Guangdong, ending a
particularly arid dry season and marking the start of the flood
season, it said. It gave no further details.
    The New China News Agency said rain and snow in Henan had
improved the prospects for wheat, sown on 4.8 mln hectares, and
caused a drop in grain prices at rural fairs since late
February. It gave no 1986 figures for comparison.
 REUTER
