A SAFE RICE BOWL
For months before the summer harvest, Liu Tianhua, the head of a rural cooperative, was on tenterhooks. The cooperative in Henan Province in central China had sown wheat over 3,000 hectares, a work of mammoth labor that had been made even more arduous by a series of problems.
First, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in spring interrupted farming and then the wheat was infected by stripe rust, a fungal disease, followed by dry weather in May. However, after harvesting started at the end of May and was nearly completed within a week, Liu could finally heave a sigh of relief. It was a bumper harvest.
Farmers nationwide shared the same exhilaration, as on June 15, when 90 percent of the summer grain had been harvested, there was official confirmation of the plentiful yield.
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days