N China to face continuous drought, persistent efforts needed

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Chinese media) -- Severe drought in north

China was expected to continue as no rain has been forecasted for the next ten

days, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the China Meteorological

Administration (CMA) said Monday.

The ministries said the current situation remained

grim and called for prolonged fight against the extreme drought that began last

November.

About 145 million mu (9.67 million hectares) of crops have

been affected by the drought, or 40 million mu more than the same period last

winter, according to the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief

Headquarters on Sunday.

Sixty percent of the wheat cropland in the central

Henan Province and 70 percent of the wheat in the eastern Anhui Province are

threatened by the extreme weather, according to MOA data.

More than half of the wheat land in provinces

including Shandong,Shanxi, Gansu has been affected.

CMA said although a light snow or rain would fall in

the affected areas in the beginning of February, the limitation could hardly

relieve the scarcity.

MOA has sent 12 working teams of experts to the

drought-hit provinces, to instruct farmers on drought relief work.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has allocated 100

million yuan (14.6 million U.S. dollars) in emergency funding to help farmers

weather the difficulties.