China’s central government on Monday was “ramping up” efforts to prevent an ongoing heatwave and drought from ruining much of the nation’s autumn grain harvest across China’s southern region, the Global Times reported, noting that the autumn grain harvest in jeopardy contributes 75 percent of China’s annual grain production on average.
China’s heatwave record was set in June and caused drought conditions to spread throughout the country’s southern and central regions.
China’s ruling Communist Party recently ordered relevant departments to undertake the following actions in response to the weather crisis, the state-run Global Times reported on August 22:
For autumn grain irrigation, reservoirs in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are involved to cope with the drought and water shortage, supplying 1. 48 billion cubic meters of water downstream [. ]
To ensure grain production, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs dispatched 25 working groups and 12 scientific and technological teams to help alleviate drought [. ]
The meteorological services are closely monitoring the fall grain growth and will schedule the country’s high performance aircraft to bring down the rain in different areas[. ]
China’s central government has allocated roughly 300 million yuan ($44 million USD) toward drought and disaster relief in support of the initiatives so far, the propaganda outlet claimed.
“The key to achieving a full-year harvest of food depends on the autumn grain, which accounts for 75 percent of annual grain production,” Jiao Shanwei, the editor-in-chief of the Chinese agriculture news website cngrain.com, told the Global Times on August 20.
A farmer stands above a deep crack in the dried mud of an earthen embankment in his rice fields on the outskirts of Chongqing, China, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Chinese provinces that rely on hydropower for their electricity grids have experienced intermittent power supply problems or blackouts over the past few weeks as a result of low water levels in source rivers. One such province, Sichuan, recorded a drop in its daily capacity for hydropower generation on August 20 of 55.1 percent. Sichuan contains a stretch of the Yangtze, which is China’s longest river, and thus depends on hydropower for roughly 80 percent of its energy supply. According to the Global Times HTML1, Sichuan has the “least precipitation” in its history.
Chongqing, a municipality located within Sichuan province, reported multiple wildfires in its mountainous zones over the weekend that required state emergency responses, Xinhua reported on August 22.
“Over 5,000 rescue personnel, including firefighters, armed forces, and professional rescue teams, as well as seven helicopters have been mobilized to put out the fires. More than 1,500 people have been evacuated to safe places,” according to China’s official state press agency.
On Monday, the Global Times reported the following about the possibility of drought in southern China threatening the country’s food supply.
The mid-late August is a key period for autumn grain corps to grow in the middle and lower stream of the Yangtze River […] the persisting heat wave plus drought will reduce the yield of crops such as corn and soybean. […] While well-functioning irrigation systems may help crops resist drought effects, those without them could be more affected by extreme weather.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs hosted a conference Friday, where they stated that local governments must continue spraying drought-resistant and water-retaining agents in areas without irrigation or watering. Localities in the most affected regions should be able to harvest earlier and plant regenerated or late-autumn rice.
China’s agricultural irrigated land accounts for half of the country’s total arable area and yields “75 percent of the nation’s grains and 90 percent of economic crops,” according to 2021 data from China’s Ministry of Water Resources cited by the Global Times on August 22.
