Oats in China are mainly distributed in North China, Northwest and Southwest China in the higher elevation of the cool zone, such as North China, Inner Mongolia Tumet Plain, Yinshan north and south, Shanxi Province, Datong Basin, Xining Basin, Northwest Plateau of Jin, Taihang Mountain and Luliang Mountain, Hebei Province, Zhangjiakou Dam and other places. Northwest region of Gansu Province, Helan Mountains, Liupan Mountains in the southern foothills of Dingxi, Linxia, Huangshui, Qinghai Province, Huanghe River Basin of the mountainous areas, the northern foothills of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province, Yulin, Yan'an, etc., Xinjiang, central and western, Ningxia Guyuan and other places. Southwest Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan's large and small Liangshan Mountains and northern Sichuan Ganzi, Aba, as well as Yunnan's Gaoligong Mountains and other places. Second in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang and other provinces at higher altitudes also have sporadic planting.

According to the statistics reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the average planting area of oats in China from 1996 to 2000 was 383,800hm2 (the first in Asia and the eighth in the world), with the yield of 1927kg/hm2 and the total production of 741,200t. In recent years, the provinces that planted oats are Inner Mongolia, Yunnan and Gansu, followed by Sichuan, Henan and Zhejiang. Gansu, followed by Sichuan, Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Guangxi, Chongqing, Hebei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Hubei and Zhejiang (Table 5-2).

Table 5-2 Cultivated area in China's main oat-producing provinces Unit: hm2

The cultivated area in Henan Province is a 3-year average.

Source: Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China*** and the State of China, China Agricultural Statistics, China Agricultural Press, 1996-2000.