Drought concern for spring crops

2008-3-21  From Shanghai Daily

REGIONS in the north and northeast of China are still fighting a continuous drought that could affect spring farming.

Serious drought had hit many big cities in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north, including Hulun Buir, Baotou, Erdos and Xilin Gol, due to reduced rainfall since December last year, the autonomous regional meteorological bureau said yesterday.

Different localities received 20 millimeters of rainfall over the past four months, just 30 percent of the corresponding period of previous years, according to Li Yunpeng, an official with the meteorological center of ecology and agriculture.

The drought would continue until the first spring rain mid next month, Li said.

Meteorological authorities yesterday called for measures to maintain soil moisture for the upcoming spring sowing.

A severe drought in neighboring Hebei Province had affected three million hectares of cropland and left residents in some areas short of drinking water.

It is the 12th consecutive spring drought in the province which has only received seven millimeters of rainfall on average since the winter, about 60 percent less than normal years.

The drought has lowered underground water levels in the province by one to two meters in plain areas and left 50,000 wells useless.

In Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China, nearly 5.8 million hectares of cropland, about half of the total farming acreage, were in dire need of irrigation, official statistics on the region showed.

At least 53 counties were suffering from an average soil moisture of 70 percent, leaving 74 percent of the farmland dry.

Many middle and large reservoirs had reported insufficient water storage, and both underground and river water levels were dropping.

However, Zhaoyuan County had managed to store 60 million cubic meters of water by collecting ice in the freezing Songhua River, in response to the government call for exploring different water resources to ensure agricultural harvest.

In neighboring Liaoning Province, the drought has been temporarily alleviated with rainfall last Wednesday and the soil thawing.