China's armed forces, which have frequently battled natural disasters, have been mobilized to help farmers cope with a severe drought that has jeopardized crops, people and livestock.

The Liberation Army Daily reported on Monday that 2,325 armed police and 76 vehicles have been dispatched to farm areas in the central province of Henan since Friday. Soldiers helped farmers dredge aqueducts and irrigate more than 2,900 mu (about 193 hectares) of crops.

The newspaper carried a photo showing air force pilots, technicians and weather-control officials discussing plans to create rain in Henan and Anhui provinces, both hit hard by drought.

Two air freighters joined the mission and successfully created moderate rain Sunday in northwest Henan and north Anhui, covering more than 100,000 square kilometers (10 million ha), according to the newspaper.

In Shandong Province, cannon troops of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had fired more than 300 rockets and 2,000 artillery shells in cloud-seeding operations by 5:00 PM on Sunday. The operations brought an average of 3 millimeters of rain to the province by 9:00 PM, according to the provincial meteorological agency.

China has been hit by its worst drought in decades. As of Monday, 276 million mu of farmland, 3.46 million people and 1.66 million head of livestock were affected. Eight provinces were severely hit: Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and Gansu.

During a visit to Henan over the weekend, Premier Wen Jiabao urged officials in drought-stricken areas to give "top priority" to relief work as agricultural stability was connected to China's bid to revive its economy.

The PLA General Staff Headquarters and the General Political Department asked the armed forces to improve communication with local governments and assist them to reduce drought damage.

The armed forces were asked to help solve drinking water shortages and spare no effort to solve transport and living difficulties in drought-hit areas.

China has declared the highest level of emergency in response to the drought, conducted cloud-seeding operations and allocated 86.7 billion yuan (about US$12.69 billion) as subsidies to farmers.

In addition, the central government has decided to earmark 400 million yuan in drought relief for local governments.

(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2009)