BEIJING — China’s summer grain output stood at 138.72 million tons this year, down 2.2 percent from last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on July 18.

“The country’s summer crops have yielded a relatively good harvest in 2018,” NBS statistician Huang Jiacai said.

The total area for growing summer crops declined 0.6 percent to 26.7 million hectares this year, while the average output from each hectare of crops dropped 1.6 percent.

Huang said the planting area dropped partly due to China’s structural adjustment to increase the planting area of cash crops, including peanuts and vegetables.

Bad weather last autumn and winter affected the planting of wheat in some areas, and more growers chose to grow cotton over wheat due to favorable cotton price policies, according to Huang.

Huang mainly attributed the drop in average output per hectare to bad weather conditions.