Posted on 05/15/2006 8:18:08 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Drought threatens food supply in western China
Mon May 15, 2:27 PM ET
Large swathes of north and west China face food shortages because of a prolonged drought that has dried up reservoirs and wells, and destroyed more 60 percent of the winter wheat crop in the worst-hit areas, the Food and Agriculture Organization said.
"Five million hectares of winter crops are estimated to have been lost or damaged as a result of inadequate rainfall and higher temperatures," the UN-agency said, adding that the area planted with spring crops had also been substantially reduced.
Out of 940,000 hectares of planned spring crops, only 30 percent were planted, the FAO estimated.
The provinces most affected by the severe water shortages are Gansu, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Yunnan, collectively home to some 170 million people.
In Ningxia, severe drought began in 2004, and some districts have not had "significant rainfall" for more than 600 days, FAO said.
In Hebei Province, which counts some 68 million inhabitants, over two million hectares of agricultural land have been severely damaged by two consecutive drought seasons, and the level of groundwater has fallen by 60 centimetres.
The Rome-based organization noted that the drought-stricken areas are among China's poorest, with average per capita rural incomes of 250 to 300 dollars (155 to 230 euros), depending on the province.
Fully "half of rural households live under the poverty line and have limited access to food," the FAO said.
Most vulnerable are those in mountain areas, where there are few alternative sources of income. In many regions, rural populations -- including elementary school children in Ningxia -- have reduced the number of daily meals from three to two, according to the FAO alert.
Ping!
Social upheaval of any sort is the thing the central authorities want the least. They could [and will] suppress the unrest, but would probably try to alleviate it - they have enough money to buy food staples.
rise in international grain price.
Marginal. The area is not at starvation level, thus one does not need to deliver 100% of food supply there, but probably something like 40%, give or take.
Seems that this is not a temporary condition. Desertification of this area has been going on for some time. There are also stories of botched irrigation project which made things worse. Besides, underground water in this area is drying up even before the drought.
It will cost China a lot of money.
This story is AFP - All Francais Perps or something like that. I guess an equally pithy headline would be "Undeveloped Backbones Threaten the Future of the French State."
So what is the bias in this article? Drought only made the pre-existing condition worse as far as I know.
Yup, here comes their 'Dust Bowl', right on schedule!
How long till they get their "New Deal" ??
Cheers!
China is a Communist country.
Nominally yes. With Dickonsonian capitalist condidtions.
What are you trying to say when you write this?
i am chinese,living in guangzhou city.
it is impossible that famine happens in china again now.
china own tech of agricuture and its production of food is quite enought to feed itself now.furthurmore ,china owns a USD resevre of almost 1 trillion dollars and can buy up all food in the world.
in fact,many farmers in china would rather plant fruits,vetetables and flowers than food because the lattter are more profitable. some low-qulity food is used to feed cattle and for wines and high-qulity food such as rice of tailand are imported widely for it is popular in china.
of course,it can rule out the possiblity that some starveling for poverty exist in china,just as most countries.
Once the boom goes to bust, things can change. Besides, if China suddenly increase its food import, the world grain price would skyrocket as oil price does currently. That will limit the amount China can import.
agree.
chinese can't rely completely on importation of food for its enormous population,however many us$ chinese have.
to the people's joy,that is what's happening on china.
china now is still the biggest producer of food in the world and produce 1/4 of the food in the world,though it is also the biggest consumer in the world .
you see,india has also a population of over a billion,slightly smaller than china,but indian production of food is only half of that of china.
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