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Drought Threatens Summer Harvest
The severe drought in northern China and parts of the south threatens the summer grain production, government officials said Monday.
They also said the drought could mean less water for millions of residents and livestock.
At least 12.66 million hectares of crop land have had less rain than usual, according to the latest statistics from the State Flood-Control and Drought Prevention Office. This figure is 1.7 million hectares more in only two weeks, said a drought prevention official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The lack of rainfall has caused a temporary shortage of drinking water for 15.6 million people - it was 13.5 million people two weeks ago, the official said - and 13.1 million livestock.
The situation has prompted the Agriculture and Water Resources ministries to issue an urgent circular over the weekend to prod local governments into taking every possible means to find other sources of water and expand irrigation areas.
The persistent dry weather, coupled with strong winds in most of North China since February, has dramatically reduced soil moisture.
Northwest and Northeast China, regions along the Yellow and Huaihe rivers and parts of the southern mountains have experienced a dry spring, the notice said.
"The widespread, severe drought has occurred in the country's major areas for summer crops," said the notice. "It happened at the critical period for the crops' growth."
Already, the Ministry of Agriculture is predicting that China's summer grain harvest will be lower than last year's because of a decrease in planted acreage. In 1999, China harvested 118.49 million tons of summer grain.
The ministry declined to estimate how significantly the drought will cut grain yields. But Wang Yun of the anti-drought office in Central China's Hubei Province said yesterday that he believes the losses caused by the province's worst dry spell will exceed 6 billion yuan (US$722 million).
So far, 2.58 million hectares of farmland in the province have been parched because of a lack of water, Wang said.
Over the past decade, droughts has affected more than 20 million hectares of Chinese farmland each year, reducing grain output by more than 30 billion kilograms a year, ministry statistics indicate.
The circular said: "Limited water resources should be first used to ensure people and their livestock have drinking water, and then used to irrigate fields that supply seeds and grain for farmers."
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