CHINESE CROPS HIT BY FROST, SNOW AND RAIN IN MARCH Wheat and rapeseed crops in east China suffered considerable damage because of frost during a spell of unusually cold weather in late March, the China Daily said. It said average temperatures for the last 10 days of March in most of east China were three to five degrees centigrade below average. Snow fell in Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei and Henan, making early rice sowing difficult. Heavy snow blanketted central and south Jilin and north Liaoning, leaving farmland too muddy for spring ploughing and sowing, the paper said. The paper said rainfall during the last 10 days of March in areas south of the Yangtze had been much higher than normal. Heavy rain fell last Sunday in parts of Guangdong, ending a particularly arid dry season and marking the start of the flood season, it said. It gave no further details. The New China News Agency said rain and snow in Henan had improved the prospects for wheat, sown on 4.8 mln hectares, and caused a drop in grain prices at rural fairs since late February. It gave no 1986 figures for comparison.