China produced less rice in the first harvest period of 2019 due to decreases in sown areas and per unit yield, official data showed Monday.

The country produced 26.27 million tonnes of early rice, planted in spring and harvested in early summer, down 8.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Early rice planting area dropped 7.1 percent to 4.45 million hectares, and the yield per hectare edged down 1.1 percent to 5.9 tonnes.

NBS statistician Huang Bingxin attributed the planting area drop to an improved crop structure amid deepening agricultural supply-side structural reform, with less low-quality early rice and more high-quality and efficient single cropping rice and other cash crops.

Insufficient rural labor force and poor weather also led to the drop in sown areas, while the adverse weather this year also contributed to the fall in per unit output.

"The decline will have a very limited impact on the country's grain output as early rice accounts for only about 4 percent of the annual grain output," Huang said.

China's total grain output consists of three parts -- early rice, summer grain, and autumn production. Autumn grain crops, which include corn and middle- and late-season rice, account for the bulk of the total.