February 8, 2011
China's dehydrated wheat-growing regions may get rain, snow
As China's northern provinces continues to be hit by extreme drought, top wheat-growing regions, Henan and southern Shandong, may get as much as 3 millimetres of rain or snow by February 10, according to meteorologists.
The weather forecast was given by China's National Meteorological Centre.
Anhui and Jiangsu provinces are also expected to get rain or snow, the weather forecaster's added.
About 35% of the wheat crop in China's eight main- growing regions has been affected by dry conditions since October.
The devastated drought has badly damaged the winter wheat crop and left the ground very dry for the spring planting.
The winter wheat crop has been parched since then in northern China while unusually widespread frost has hurt the vegetable crop in southern China.
Some of the driest areas are close to Beijing, which has had no appreciable precipitation since October 23, although there were brief snow flurries on December 29.
Food prices have been rising around the world, a result of weather problems in many countries, like the unusual heat wave in Russia last summer.
But even a prolonged drought in China appears highly unlikely to cause acute food shortages. China has spent years accumulating very large government reserves of grain and also has US$2.85 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, giving it virtually unlimited ability to import food as long as major grain producers do not limit exports.
