Yangtze river drought affects 5% of farmland

China.org.cn, May 30, 2011

The?prolonged drought along the Yangtze River has plagued 104.4 million mu (6.96 million hectares), or more than 5 percent, of farmland in China, the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on Sunday.

The severe drought from?April has affected 34.83 million people in the five provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan, where dry spell is most serious, according to the latest government statistics.

Four China's largest fresh water lakes located in the great region have been also affected, which are drying up dramatically.

Soaring vegetable prices amid China's worst drought in half a century have triggered worries that inflation will climb to a new high in May.

China's National Meteorological Center on Sunday kept its "yellow alert" for the persistent drought, which said that there will be still no substantial precipitation in the coming days in the drought-hit regions.

The central government has allocated 1.96 billion yuan to drought relief and to subsidize the loss this year, according to Zhang Xu, deputy director of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.