CHINESE CROPS HIT BY FROST, SNOW AND RAIN IN MARCH

  Wheat and rapeseed crops in east China
  suffered considerable damage because of frost during a spell of
  unusually cold weather in late March, the China Daily said.
      It said average temperatures for the last 10 days of March
  in most of east China were three to five degrees centigrade
  below average. Snow fell in Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei and Henan,
  making early rice sowing difficult.
      Heavy snow blanketted central and south Jilin and north
  Liaoning, leaving farmland too muddy for spring ploughing and
  sowing, the paper said.
      The paper said rainfall during the last 10 days of March in
  areas south of the Yangtze had been much higher than normal.
      Heavy rain fell last Sunday in parts of Guangdong, ending a
  particularly arid dry season and marking the start of the flood
  season, it said. It gave no further details.
      The New China News Agency said rain and snow in Henan had
  improved the prospects for wheat, sown on 4.8 mln hectares, and
  caused a drop in grain prices at rural fairs since late
  February. It gave no 1986 figures for comparison.
  

