A farmer pumps water from a drying-up pond to water wheat fields at Yangzhuang Village in Linyi City, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 8, 2011. [Xinhua]

TV footage showed Li holding a dry and yellowed wheat plant and saying that it should be green at this time of year.

Li farms 0.2 hectares of wheat that usually produces about 1,700 kilograms a year.

The farmer said his field will produce nothing if he is not able to irrigate it within a matter of days.

To combat the devastating drought, Shandong has allocated 800 million yuan ($120 million) in emergency funding and repaired and dug more than 30,000 irrigation wells.

In Yongnian county in North China's Hebei province, electricity suppliers have been working hard to ensure there is enough power for irrigation.

"We have dispatched 23 service teams to walk into fields to pre-run and fix some 6,000 irrigation machines in the county," China National Radio quoted Zhang Zhiqiang, a manager with a power supplier, as saying on Tuesday.

To prevent heavy losses from the dry spell, Hebei has transferred 70 million cubic meters of water from the Yellow River and has reserved another 200 million cubic meters of water.

The radio quoted Li Qinglin, head of Hebei's water resources bureau, as saying that the province will bring in more water from other provinces and start up all irrigation facilities to water dry fields.

In North China's Shanxi province, 1.5 million hectares of wheat have been affected across more than 60 percent of the province's wheat-producing areas. And the drought has had an immediate impact on people living there as well, leaving more than 440,000 residents with a temporary shortage of drinking water.

The province has allocated 230 million yuan to subsidize pumping stations and irrigation projects and another 50 million yuan to stabilize water prices for rural residents.

The severe drought has led speculators to expect higher prices on the wheat futures market amid fears that crops may fail and drive up grain prices, Xinhua reported.

However, the efforts of farmers and local governments to mitigate the impact of the drought, coupled with a large inventory of grain, are expected to reduce that risk.

Data from the National Development and Reform Commission shows current grain reserves are equal to about 40 percent of total grain consumption in 2010, which is thought to be enough to satisfy domestic demand and avoid a price hike.

Premier Wen Jiabao, during his trip to drought-ravaged areas of Shandong on Feb 2 and 3, said stabilizing consumer prices will be the "most important task" this year among the economic policies of the central government. Grain prices are fundamental for achieving that goal, he said.