An agricultural machinery operator drives a harvester at a farm in Bozhou, East China's Anhui Province on May 27, 2022. As Grain in Ear, a traditional Chinese calendar day signaling a proper time for farming, approaches, local farmers have ratcheted up efforts to either plant or harvest summer grain. Photo: VCG

Chinese government has allocated more funds to support autumn harvest and help drought relief that is threatening crop growth. 

Guizhou Province in Southwest China, doled out an emergency financial subsidy of 65 million yuan ($9.5 million) for drought relief, like prompting artificial rain and purchasing water supply facilities.

Guizhou's move came amid a national effort to ensure autumn farm harvest. China's total summer grain output reached 147.39 million tons, or 294.8 billion jin, while the full-year goal is 1.300 trillion jin.

The central government announced it will allocate 10 billion yuan to help rice farmers cope with drought, which was among 19 measures to tackle economic challenges released on Wednesday by the State Council, the cabinet. This was in addition to 30 billion yuan in subsidies already allocated earlier this year.

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

Prior to this, Central China's Henan Province, the country's largest grain producer, announced an allocation of 130 million yuan to support drought relief and autumn harvest.
Continuous high temperatures and lack of rain have caused drought to affect growth of crops in parts of Henan, such as major grain-producing areas Nanyang, Zhoukou, Zhumadian and Anyang, according to Henan provincial government on Wednesday.

Henan on Tuesday provided 130 million yuan to protect agricultural production and water conservation across the province. It is understood that the funds will be mainly used to support local water replenishment efforts, replanting, and the purchase of insecticides, fungicides and fertilizers. 

Henan has invested in 487 pumping stations and 99,700 drought-fighting equipment sets, and has completed irrigation of 47.74 million mu (3.18 million hectares) of planting area, according to the provincial agriculture department. 

Henan's total cultivated area is 5.68 million hectares, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which means 56 percent of its grain planting area are irrigated. 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 million mu.

In the first half of 2022, Henan produced about one-fourth of China's grain, according to calculations based on statistics from the NBS.

Other provinces have also announced measures to support autumn harvest.
For example, as of Tuesday, a total of 1.336 billion yuan were invested in drought relief in Central China's Hubei Province. Since the summer planting in mid-May, 6.993 billion cubic meters of water has been supplied to grain-growing areas, and about 37.61 million mu of farmland has been irrigated, official statistics showed.

Since late July, southern China has witnessed its longest, broadest and most intense hot and dry weather since 1961. The rapid expansion of drought, combined with heat waves, poses a serious threat to autumn grain harvest, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Tuesday.

The overall situation for agricultural drought relief and disaster reduction remains grim, the ministry noted.