THE country’s weather bureau said Friday that heavy rain last month caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon damaged rice and cotton crops in major growing areas in the south and that poor conditions would continue this month.

    Rain had been more than 50 percent heavier than in normal years, flooding paddy fields and hurting early-season rice at a key growing stage. It had damaged the crop in provinces including Hunan and Jiangxi, the country’s largest and second-largest rice area, the bureau said.

    “Some early-season rice was flowering when hit by heavy rains and the damage was very serious,” said Zhang Zhuqiang, a director with the China Meteorological Administration, at a news conference.

    The bureau had earlier expected El Nino conditions this year to cause heavy rainfall in the south and create drought-like conditions in the north, but said that unlike in 1997-98, the intensity of the phenomenon would be moderate.

    China’s harvest of early-season rice, which was 34 million tons in 2014, accounted for about 16 percent of the country’s total rice output.(SD-Agencies)