Despite the worst drought in decades, a remote county in southwest China, on the Myanmar border, looks poised to maintain crop output this autumn thanks to the widespread use of water-saving techniques and more productive farming methods.

The drought, which has lingered since autumn, has left 98,600 people and 13,150 head of livestock with severe drinking water shortages in Tengchong county, Yunnan Province, according to local authorities.

The county aimed to harvest 67,800 tonnes of summer grain this year, but output is expected to be down by 10,000 tonnes due to the drought, said Yang Yanchang, deputy director of Tengchong's agricultural bureau.

The hilly county, with a population of 640,000 and 5,845 square kilometers in size, grows wheat, barley and cole as major summer crops and rice for autumn harvest.

Despite the fall in rice yields, Tengchong aimed to raise annual production by adopting water-saving measures and growing less water-demanding crops, Yang said.

"We expect total grain output this year will reach 329,700 tonnes, 3.6 percent more than last year," Yang said, adding the monsoon season, which would start in May, would bring more rain to the county.

"The increase in output in autumn could recoup the summer losses," Yang said.

Rain from March 27 to April 3 had eased the situation in Tengchong, said Yang.

In Yong An village of Jie Tou, the biggest agricultural township of Tengchong, Li Hongshun, 52, has sown rice seeds on a dry soil bed in preparation for transplanting them to new fields.

The so-called "dry soil bed breeding" required two thirds less water compared to "wet soil bed breeding", where seedlings grow in water-soaked fields, Li Hongshun said.