The structure of crop cultivation was adjusted continuously. The area planted to grain crops decreased, compared with the year 2000. The sown area of cotton increased 760,000 hectares, that of sugar crops 170,000 hectares, and vegetables about 1.15 million hectares. While the area planted to oil crops decreased 700,000 hectares, that planted to high-quality and special-purpose wheat increased more than 1.3 million hectares. The sown area of high-quality rice exceeded 50 percent of the total area planted to rice, and the area planted to high-quality rapeseeds also increased by a large margin.

The output of grain reduced to some extent. Influenced by reduction of sown area and severe droughts, the total output of grain in 2001 was 452.62 million tons, a decrease of 2.1 percent from 2000. Of this total, the output of summer grain was 101.88 million tons, down 4.6 percent; that of early rice 33.96 million tons, down 9.5 percent; and autumn grain 316.78 million tons, down 0.3 percent.

The output of cotton and sugar crops increased and that of oil-bearing crops decreased. The output of cotton for the whole year totaled 5.32 million tons, up 20.4 percent. The output of sugar crops was 87.9 million tons, up 15.1 percent, while that of oil crops decreased 2.8 percent to 28.72 million tons. Vegetable production maintained fast growth on the basis of increase in fine and high-quality varieties.

The animal husbandry and fishery industries maintained steady growth. In 2001, the total output of meat reached 63.4 million tons, up 3.5 percent over 2000, while the total output of aquatic products stood at 43.75 million tons, up 2.3 percent.

New progress was made in forestry and construction of water conservancy facilities. The afforested area in 2001 totaled 5.3 million hectares, an increase of 3.8 percent over 2000, including 400,000 hectares restored from cultivated land. Levees along the Yangtze River that were up to standard constituted 80 percent of the total designed length, and a total of 544 km of levees along the lower reaches of the Yellow River were heightened. More than 1 million hectares of land were converted into farmland with effective irrigation system in 2001.