Wheat is the main food crop next to rice in China. Over the years, the planting area of wheat accounts for 22-30% of the total cultivated land area and 20-27% of the total area of grain crops in China, which is distributed throughout all provinces (cities and districts) in China. According to the climatic characteristics, topography, soil types, ecological types of varieties, planting system, cultivation characteristics, sowing and maturing period, the wheat planting areas in China are divided into 10 main areas and 30 sub regions.
1. Spring wheat area in Northeast China
It includes Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, most of Liaoning Province except southern coastal areas and Northeast Inner Mongolia. The area and total yield of wheat fields in the whole region accounted for 8% and 6.5% of the national total respectively.
2. Northern spring wheat area
The whole region is located in the west of Daxinganling, north of the Great Wall, Yimeng and Bamu in Inner Mongolia in the west, and the people’s Republic of Mongolia in the north. It includes the north of the Great Wall in Hebei and Shaanxi provinces and the northern part of Shanxi Province. The area and total yield of wheat account for 2.7% and 1.2% of the whole country respectively, accounting for about 20% of the total planting area of grain crops in the region.
3. Northwest Spring Wheat Region
Gansu and Ningxia are the main regions in the region. It includes the west of Inner Mongolia and the east of Qinghai. The area and total yield of wheat account for 4.1% and 4.4% respectively of the whole country.
4. Winter and spring wheat area in Xinjiang
The planting area and total yield of wheat are about 4.5% and 3.8% of that of China respectively.
5. Qinghai Tibet spring wheat winter wheat region
It includes most of Tibet and Qinghai, southwest of Gansu, west of Sichuan and northwest of Yunnan. The whole region is dominated by forestry and animal husbandry. The planting area and total yield of wheat account for 0.5% of the whole country.
6. Northern winter wheat area
It includes the plain area to the south of the Great Wall in Hebei Province, the central and southeastern part of Shanxi Province, the northern part of Shaanxi Province, the southern part of Liaoning Province and Ningxia Province, and the cities of Longdong and Beijing and Tianjin in Gansu Province. Wheat fields and total production accounted for more than 8% and 5.7% of the national total respectively. Wheat accounts for about 30% of the total area of grain crops in the region.
7. Huanghuai Winter Wheat Region
It includes Shandong Province, Henan Province except Xinyang area, South Central Hebei Province, north of Huaihe River in Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province, Guanzhong Plain in Shaanxi Province, southwest Shanxi Province and Tianshui area in Gansu Province. The area and total yield of wheat account for 45% and 51% of the whole country respectively. Generally, the area of wheat field is more than 45% of the planting area of grain crops.
8. Winter wheat area in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River
The whole region reaches Huaihe River in the north, hills and mountains in Western Hubei and Western Hunan in the west, seashore in the East and Nanling in the south, including all three provinces of Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, parts of Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei and Hunan, and Xinyang area of Henan Province. The area and total yield of wheat fields account for more than 12% and 14% of the whole country respectively.
9. Southwest Winter Wheat Region
It includes Guizhou Province, most of Sichuan and Yunnan Province, southern Shaanxi Province, Southeast Gansu Province and Western Hubei and Hunan provinces. The area and total yield of wheat fields are about 12% of that of the whole country.
10. South China Winter Wheat Region
It includes Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and Taiwan provinces.