The government has put forward a five-year plan to build a major cashmere production and processing centre at Linhe in Inner Mongolia, Meat News said. The number of sheep in the area will be increased from 600,000 to 6m on land that was previously arable.
By the end of the five-year period, the centre is expected to produce about Yn2bn-worth of cashmere and meat products each year.
No major change in grain output China's grain output for 2001 is likely to be much the same as the previous year's 462.5m tonnes, said agriculture vice-minister Liu Jian. Although bad weather, particularly persistent drought, affected summer grain and early rice production, the autumn crops had better weather and production levels were maintained.