A serious drought has hit north China’s Shanxi Province, posing a serious threat to wheat production, according to the local flood control and drought relief office.
Statistics show that the province’s rainfall between March and May ranged between only 10 to 45 millimeters, 50 percent less than the normal level.
An official survey indicates that as many as 72 counties have fallen victim to the drought, with 45 of them suffering enormous losses.
The drought has caused great harm to the growing of wheat in the province, with more than 733,000 hectares of wheat land unable to be sown.
Moreover, there are 160,000 hactares of land on which the sown wheat seeds were unable to sprout due to a lack of water, sources said.
Still worse is that some counties have been stricken so drastically that over half of their cultivated land can not be sown.
The drought has also caused the groundwater level in the province to fall, putting three million people and 400,000 livestock in short supply of drinking water, and rendering 20,000 wells unable to produce enough water for irrigation.
A reduction in the wheat yield is possible as the drought is continuing, sources said.
(Xinhua 05/29/2001)
