February 25, 2009
China's drought situation worsens
China's ongoing drought has worsened in north-western Gansu although snow and rainfall eased the crisis in seven other provinces, the Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday (Feb 25).
The ministry's website said 483,000 hectares, or 80 percent of the winter crops farmland were affected due to little precipitation, high temperatures and decreased river flow.
The country's worst drought in nearly half a century affected mostly northern and central China. Beijing declared an emergency at the beginning of the month as the drop in rainfall caused winter wheat crops to wither and left millions of people in eight provinces facing water shortages.
Meanwhile, the provincial government has responding by sending experts to assist farmers in irrigating their crops.
The government has also artificially induced snow and rain with cloud-seeding techniques that helped to ease the situation in the wheat-producing provinces of Henan, Hebei and Shandong.
