The country's wheat acreage is estimated at 24.12 million hectares this year, down 20,000 hectares year-on-year, according to a report released by the ministry's Market Early Warning Expert Committee in April.

Cao said the government's efforts to prevent overextraction of groundwater in northern China also played a role in the decreased wheat acreage.

Meanwhile, unfavorable weather conditions, including low temperatures during the growth season and lingering rainfall in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces during the harvest period, also reduced crop yields, Cao said.

Hu Anlin, a farmer who cultivates 31.3 hectares of wheat in suburban Nanjing, Jiangsu province, said that he could suffer a loss of about 100,000 yuan ($15,200) this year as his wheat was hit by rain during the harvest season.

Rain increases the moisture level in grains of wheat, which makes them susceptible to mold, he said.

Although the country has stuck to the State stockpiling program and the minimum purchase price policy for wheat this year, the poor quality of wheat has made it difficult for farmers to sell their products.

Similar difficulties face wheat farmers elsewhere in Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu provinces, where crops were rejected for the government grain reserves because of poor quality, Xinhua News Agency reported.