Severe drought in north China was expected to continue as no rain has been forecasted for the next 10 days, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said on Monday.

The ministries said the current situation remained grim and called for prolonged fight against the extreme drought that began last November.

About 145 million mu (9.67 million hectares) of crops have been affected by the drought, or 40 million mu more than the same period last winter, according to the Office of State Flood Controland Drought Relief Headquarters on Sunday.

Sixty percent of the wheat cropland in the central Henan Province and 70 percent of the wheat in the eastern Anhui Province are threatened by the extreme weather, according to MOA data.

More than half of the wheat land in provinces including Shandong, Shanxi, and Gansu has been affected.

CMA said although a light snow or rain would fall in the affected areas in the beginning of February, the limitation could hardly relieve the scarcity.

MOA has sent 12 working teams of experts to the drought-hit provinces, to instruct farmers on drought relief work.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has allocated 100 million yuan (US$14.6 million) in emergency funding to help farmers weather the difficulties.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2009)