Over thereporting period, several pests and diseases affected crops in China. Thissection presents an overview of pests and diseases affecting wheat, rice, andmaize.[1]

Wheat

During late May and early June 2016, the main wheat regionsof China were severely affected by wheat diseases and pests. South of theYellow River (including southern Huanghuaihai, Lower Yangtze, and most ofSouthwest China), the crop had generally reached maturity, while it wasstill at the grain filling stage in areas north of the Yellow River (includingnorthern Huanghuaihai and the Loess region). The development of the cropcanopy after winter was conductive to the occurrence of powderymildew and aphids. Due to abundant precipitation in May, especially in Northwest Chinawhere rainfall exceeded the average by 20% to 50%, the humidity created idealconditions for diseases and pests dispersal.

The distribution of winter wheat aphid in late May 2016 isshown in figure 4.6 and table 4.5. In China, the total wheat area exposed toaphids reached 6.7 million hectares, severely affecting most of Hebei, northernHenan, and northern Shandong, and, to a lesser extent, southern Gansu and centralShaanxi. Powdery mildew (figure 4.7 and table 4.6) damaged around 4.7 millionhectares in the main winter wheat region of China, severely affecting wheat insouthern Gansu, central Shaanxi, and southern Shanxi, and moderately in most ofHebei and northern Shandong areas. For winter wheat sheath blight (figure 4.8and table 4.7) the infection area is about 2.7 million hectares, with thedisease moderately occurring in northern Henan and most of Hebei, and slightlyin other regions.

[1]This section has been contributed by Wenjiang Huang, Yingying Dong, Yue Shi,Linyi Liu, Fang Xu, and Wenjing Liu.