Snowfall Helps Little to Ease Drought in China, Led to Price Hike of Corn

The latest snowfall in China's northern areas isn't expected to have much effect on the severe drought gripping the area.

As our Wang Jing tells us, the severe drought is now pushing up prices for agricultural products.

The snow came in over the weekend in Beijing and Tianjin, and coated most parts of Hebei and Shandong as well.

Many places have been firing off special rockets to try to create artificial snow.

Still, Yang Guiming, chief forecaster with the National Meteorological Center, says the snow is only a slight reprieve against the drought.

"Snow only lasted till Sunday night in the drought-hit areas, and by Monday, most of the snow has stopped."

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, hard-hit regions will require at least 50 mm of precipitation.

The current amount that fell is less than 5 mm in most areas.

Another two major wheat-growing provinces of Henan and Anhui did not see any snowfall over the weekend, following the first winter snow last week.

In Shanxi, one of the province's largest reservoirs now only holds about 200 thousand cubic meters of water.

People who farm the more than one thousand hectares of wheat that depends on the reservoir are now being forced to turn to newly-dug wells for irrigation.

Li Xuewen from the Huihe river reservoir says he's never seen it like this.

"The 200 thousand cubic meters of water is such a tiny proportion compared to its designed storage of 100 million cubic meters. Since the drought started last year, from spring to summer, through winter, there's been no water coming from the upper stream."

And as the dry spell continues, the price of agricultural products has picked up, particularly the price of corn.

Chai Xiaofeng from the China Grain and Logistics Corporation says the price increases are likely to continue.

"Corn price grew fast during the Spring Festival. Corn prices in Guangdong were traded at about 2130 yuan per ton before the holiday, but the price has now increased to 2230 yuan per ton. The growth rate is pretty impressive."

Stats from the Ministry of Agriculture says that as of Sunday, the drought has affected over 7 million hectares of wheat crops in eight provinces, of which, one fifth are severely affected.

For CRI, I'm Wang Jing.