Floods this year in China have left 427 people dead and 126 missing as of Monday, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (SFDH) announced on Tuesday.

Floods had hit 29 provinces or regions and affected 91.88 million people and 7.12 million hectares of crops, resulting in 71.1 billion yuan (US$10.41 billion) of losses, said a statement on the SFDH website.

A severe drought in the main grain production bases in north China this summer had affected up to 191 million mu (27.96 million hectares) of crops -- about 35 percent more than the average in the previous years, said the statement.

The acreage of farmland suffering drought shrank to 126 million mu as of Monday, about 65 million mu less than the peak figure.

The central government had allocated 1.85 billion yuan to the provincial governments to fight droughts and floods, said Tian Yitang, an official with the SFDH.

(Xinhua News Agency August 26, 2009)