The provincial finance department of Central China's Henan, the country's largest grain producer, recently announced an allocation of 130 million yuan ($19 million) to support drought relief and autumn harvest amid extreme high temperatures.
Continuous high temperatures and lack of rain have caused drought to impact autumn crops in parts of Henan Province, including major grain planting areas such as Nanyang, Zhoukou, Zhumadian and Anyang, according to an announcement on the Henan pro-vincial government website on Wednesday.
The Henan finance department on Tuesday issued funds totaling 130 million yuan to protect agricultural production and water conservancy relief across the province.
It is understood that the funds will be mainly used to support local water replenishment efforts, replanting, purchase of insecticides, fungicide and fertilizer among other drought protection measures.
The funds were immediately dispatched with a view to minimizing disaster loss and ensure a stable autumn and annual grain harvest.
At present, Henan has invested in 487 pumping stations and 99,700 drought-fighting equipment sets, and has completed irrigation of 47.74 millionmu(3.18 million hectares) of planting area. Henan's total sown area is 5.68 million hectares, per National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which means 56 percent of its grain planting area has been irrigat-ed.
According to soil moisture monitoring by the Henan Provincial Department of Water Resources, as of 4 pm on Monday, the drought-affected area in Henan had reached 15.74 millionmu.
Water has been pumped from a canal to a waterway to ease the drought and ensure the harvest since August 18, 2022 in Ma’anshan, East China’s Anhui Province as Chinese provinces and regions are battling prolonged heat waves. Photo: VCG
Henan is a main grain producing area in China. In the first half of 2022, Henan pro-duced more than one-fourth of China's grain, according to calculations based on statis-tics of NBS.
Other provinces also announced measures to support autumn harvest amid high tem-peratures and drought.
China will allocate 10 billion yuan to help rice farmers cope with drought, which is among19 policy measures to tackle various economic challengesreleased on Wednes-day night by the State Council, China's cabinet.
Since late July, southern China has witnessed its longest, broadest and most intense hot and dry stretch since 1961. The rapid expansion of drought, combined with heat dam-age, poses a serious threat to autumn grain production, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Tuesday.
The overall situation for agricultural drought relief and disaster reduction remains ex-tremely grim, the ministry noted.
