China's summer crop output will rise by 1.9 percent to 116 million tons in 2007, 22 million tons more than last year's output, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said on Monday.

The output of wheat is expected to reach 103 million tons, accounting for nearly 89 percent of the total summer crop harvest.

Summer crops normally make up 20 percent of China's annual grain output which had grown for three straight years since 2003 to 497.46 million tons last year, up 2.8 percent or 13.44 million tons from 2005.

As China enters the flood season, Sun Zhengcai, minister of agriculture, called for more efforts to ensure the harvest of autumn crops.

Continuous rainfall since the beginning of July has caused floods in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, damaging more than 5.5 million hectares of grain crops by Thursday.

In central China's Hubei Province, about 907,000 hectares of crops were affected and more than 159,000 hectares were damaged by Sunday, according to local flood control and drought relief headquarters.

The minister urged local governments in flood-battered areas to mobilize farmers to restore farm production in time to reduce losses.

Heavy or torrential rains will continue over the next three days in Sichuan Basin, northeastern Inner Mongolia, northeast China, Huaihe River area and most areas to the south of the Yangtze River, according to Monday's forecast by the China Meteorological Administration.