China’s early rice output saw a 0.4-percent increase this year as government support policies paid off, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday. The output reached 28.12 million tonnes, up 106,000 tonnes from the level in 2021, according to the NBS. Since the beginning of this year, the government has taken multiple measures to stabilize double-cropping rice production, including raising the minimum purchase price of rice and increasing incentives for major grain-producing counties, said Wang Guirong, a senior official with the NBS. Due to unfavorable weather conditions from May to June this year, the per unit area yield of early rice decreased 0.1 percent year on year, Wang added. A bumper summer harvest and a stable early rice production have laid a good foundation for grain harvest this year and provided solid support for stabilizing the economic fundamentals, Wang said.