China says it will try to protect its grain harvest from record-setting drought by using chemicals to generate rain.
The record-setting drought in southwest China has hit Sichuan Province particularly hard because it gets 80 percent of its power from hydroelectric dams. The provincial government says reservoirs are at half of the normal water levels.
China is experiencing the hottest, driest summer since the government began recording rainfall and temperature 61 years ago. Last week, according to Bloomberg, factories in Sichuan province were shut down in order to save power for air-conditioning as temperatures reached as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).
In other areas of China, deadly flash floods have turned cities and towns upside down. Flooding in the northwestern province of Qinghai killed at least 26 people and left five missing, state television reported Sunday, citing local authorities.
Mudslides and overflowing rivers late Thursday hit six villages in Datong county, according to earlier news reports. Some 1,500 people were forced out of their homes, reports the Associated Press.
Southern China’s rice crop is on the line
China’s Agriculture Minister Tang Renjian, says the next 10 days are a “key period of damage resistance” for southern China’s rice crop, according to reporting by the newspaper Global Times.
The governments of Sichuan and neighboring Hubei province say thousands of hectares (acres) of crops are a total loss and millions have been damaged.
China’s national observatory on Saturday issued an orange alert for drought across many southern regions including Chongqing, Hunan, and most parts of Sichuan. In the next three days, most of the above-mentioned areas may maintain high temperatures and little rain, and the drought could continue to develop.
Authorities will take emergency steps to “ensure the autumn grain harvest,” which is 75 percent of China’s annual total, Tang said Friday.
To do this, authorities will “try to increase rain” by seeding clouds with chemicals and spraying crops with a “water retaining agent” to limit evaporation, Tang’s ministry said on its website. It gave no details of where that would be done.
There seems to be a lot riding on getting a good rice crop. The ruling Communist party is trying its best to shore up the sagging economy before a meeting in October or November when President Xi Jinping is expected to try to award himself a third five-year term as leader.
But even of greater concern is the possibility of China having a smaller than normal rice crop and its possible global impact. It would boost demand for imports, adding to upward pressure on inflation in the United States and Europe which is running at multi-decade highs.
