FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 06/01 - CHINA (19 June)
Extreme weather is bringing drought to the northern and floods to the southern parts of China. In the North, Northeast, part of the Northwest and Southwest areas, north Xinjiang, Shandong Peninsula, Hubei Province and north of Jiangsu Province, precipitation has reportedly been reduced by 50 percent to 90 percent below the normal level since February this year. Drought conditions also affect Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Hebei, Shangxi, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Henan, Shangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Gansu, Sha'anxi, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia Province, Ningzia and Xinjiang. According to official sources, more than 20 million hectares of crops are affected. Harvest is expected to be reduced on 13 million hectares while some 800 000 hectares may not produce a harvest at all. In addition, 4 million hectares of land are left unplanted due to water shortage. It is also reported that 20 million people and 15 million drought animals are lacking water supply, which remains a critical problem in cities in the southern part of the North and Northeast and Shangdong Peninsula. Locusts are reported to have appeared in some areas threatening crops that survive to maturity. Summer crop yields reduction is confirmed in Sichuan, Chongqing, Henan and Jiangsu. The drought is reported to have affected large winter wheat areas. Several days of heavy rains in mid-June brought relief to some areas affected by the drought and farmers have reportedly started replanting damaged crops although meteorologists warned that dry conditions could persist.
In contrast to the parched northern provinces, floods in the south in early June severely hit Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and other provinces. Official sources reported that in addition to directly affect 17 million people of the 27 million people located in the flood areas, flooding killed hundreds of others, caused the evacuation of about 140 000 persons and damaged property. It is estimated that some 1.7 million hectares of crops are affected and harvest could be reduced on 1.2 million hectares. The impact of floods on planting of the late and harvesting of the early rice crops which account together for about 43 percent of the aggregate rice output and are currently underway in the south is not yet known. More localized landslides and floods, intensified by seasonal rains in mid-June, have killed at least 100 people in other southern provinces.