The Ministry of Agriculture revealed Thursday that 2 million hectares of wheat in China have been plagued by stripe rust and the infected acreage might reach 6.7 million hectares by this year's end.

Minister Du Qinglin urged local governments to strengthen the early-warning system and to enhance efficiency in preventing and controlling the wheat disease, hoping to restrain the infected areas within five percent of the total wheat field.

The ministry set the wheat production goal for this summer at an average rise of five kilograms per mu (0.067 hectare) over the same period last year.

Du stressed that both governments and farmers should improve defending abilities against other disasters, such as the drought, stalk leaning of crops and hot wind.

He also reminded farmers to focus on irrigation to ensure sufficient water supply for wheat, which was now at its key growth period in a year.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2004)