August 17, 2009

Drought in China's five northern regions poses severe threat to grain output

Drought since late July in China's five northern regions is a "severe threat" to production of autumn grain, Agriculture Vice Minister Wei Chaoan said Saturday (August 16).

In the regions of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, which cover about 30 percent of China's autumn grain areas and production, a total of 8.33 million hectares of crops have been hit by drought as of Friday, among which 2.56 million hectares have been seriously hurt, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.

The ministry started to respond to the drought with a third-degree emergency in the five major grain production areas, the ministry said in the statement.