CRI听力：China Asks for More Efforts to Cope with Severe Drought

Anchor:
China's central government has urged local governments to take all means necessary to combat the current drought, which has crippled the country's agriculture. Six major grain production provinces, including Henan, Anhui, and Shandong, have been severely hit.

Zhang Cheng has the details.

Reporter:
The Ministry of Agriculture says the lack of rainfall has led to severe drought in northern China, leaving more than 9 million hectares of wheat affected. Drought had also left nearly 4 million people and 2 million livestock with no access to drinking water.

In east China's Shandong Province, Some areas have had barely any rainfall since January. The average precipitation across the whole province was only one millimetre, which has been estimated to be 90 percent lower than the same period last year.

Jia Wanzhi, vice governor of Shandong Province, says the local authorities have recently sent more than 6,000 agricultural technicians to instruct farmers on drought relief work.

They've also organized large numbers of trucks to transport drinking water to people living in remote areas.

"Areas along the Yellow River should dug channels to bring in water to irrigate farmlands. The local governments should also strengthen management and adopt effective measures to ensure people and livestock can have drinking water and be able to reach reasonable production levels."

Henan Province, one of China's major grain producers, issued a red alert on Thursday. The local meteorological bureau says the drought is the worst since 1951.

The drought has affected over 60 percent of the province's more than 5 million hectares of wheat.

Liu Mancang, vice governor of Henan province, stresses the importance of agricultural technology services.

"Agricultural technicians should adopt effective measures to inform farmers about how to combat the draught and manage their affected farmlands."

According to weather reports issued by China's Meteorological Administration, severe drought in north China is expected to continue as no rain has been forecasted for the next ten days.

Yang Guiming, chief forecaster with China's Central Meteorological Observatory, says artificial precipitation may be carried out.

"We are closely watching the weather conditions and doing some preparations for it. If the weather permits, artificial precipitation will be carried out." (www.hXen.com)

China's Ministry of Agriculture has sent 12 working teams of experts to the drought-hit provinces, to instruct farmers on drought relief.

The Ministry of Finance has also allocated 100 million yuan, or some 14 and half million U.S. dollars, in emergency funding to help stricken farmers.

Zhang Cheng, CRI News.