[The Epoch Times, August 24, 2022](The Epoch Times reporters Fang Xiao and Luo Ya interviewed and reported) Autumn grain accounts for 3/4 of the mainland’s annual grain output. Officials said the high temperature and drought threatened this year’s autumn grain harvest. The four departments of the Communist Party of China jointly issued an urgent notice to fight the “defense battle to ensure a bumper harvest of autumn grains”. And mainland experts pointed out that it is expected that in the next few weeks, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River may experience continuous droughts in summer and autumn, and “prepare for the worst”.
Official: Majority of food production under threat
This is a critical period for the production of autumn grain crops in China, and the harvest season is less than two months away. On August 21, Tang Renjian, Director of the Agricultural Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Secretary of the Party Group and Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, presided over a meeting, saying that high temperature and drought have become the biggest threat to the bumper harvest of autumn grains in the south.
On August 22, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Emergency Management, and the China Meteorological Administration jointly issued an emergency notice, requiring relevant areas to do a good job in disaster prevention and mitigation, and go all out to win the battle against high temperature and heat. The battle against drought to secure a bumper harvest of autumn grains.
On August 16, when Hu Chunhua, Vice Premier of the Communist Party of China, attended the video scheduling meeting for the key work of “Three Rurals” in the third quarter in Beijing, he emphasized that it is necessary to pay close attention to the production of autumn grains. Hu Chunhua said that the output of autumn grain accounts for three-quarters of the total grain output in the whole year, and it is the bulk of grain production.
The provinces (cities) most affected by this drought on the Yangtze River Basin are Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing and Sichuan. As of August 17, in less than a week, the area of arable land affected by drought in 6 provinces and cities has expanded from 9.67 million mu to 12.32 million mu.
Liu Zhiyu, deputy director of the Information Center of the Ministry of Water Resources, said at a press conference on August 17 that some small and medium-sized reservoirs in the Yangtze River Basin are seriously under-watered. At present, the water storage of reservoirs in Sichuan, Chongqing and Anhui is 10% less than that of the same period of the previous year, 70 small and medium-sized reservoirs are below the dead water level, and 110 are operating close to the dead water level.
According to data from the Ministry of Water Resources of the Communist Party of China on August 21, up to now, the area of arable land in 9 provinces (cities) including Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, and Jiangxi has reached 32.99 million mu, with 2.46 million people and 350,000 large livestock. Water supply is affected by drought.
On August 18, the latest data from the Chongqing Municipal Water Conservancy Bureau showed that as of August 16, 66 rivers in the city had stopped flowing, 25 reservoirs had dried up, 2,138 electromechanical wells had insufficient water, and 34 districts and counties had suffered drought disasters, with a cumulative affected population of 889,000. people.
Mr. Han, a citizen of Yuzhong District, Chongqing, told the Epoch Times reporter on August 24 that the local high temperature was very serious, and the Yangtze River and Jialing River were both dry. It is estimated that in half a month, the Yangtze River will dry up. “The farmland has long since dried up into a desert.”
Mr. Han said that at present, the prices of local grains, vegetables, fruits and non-staple food have all risen, and silk celery has risen to more than 20 yuan per catty. Pork has risen even more, more than 20 to 30 yuan per catty. The people simply cannot survive.
Last week, the highest temperature in Beibei, Chongqing reached an unprecedented 45°C. Mr. Han said that the high temperature of over 44 degrees in Chongqing has never happened in history.
Mr. Han said that the local people with good economic conditions have all left Chongqing and went to the nearby high-altitude places to escape the summer heat. “But I have no money, so I can’t leave, so I just stay at home. It’s very uncomfortable. It’s too hot to go out.” The life of the people of Chongqing is indescribable. I am a lonely old man, and the government does not take care of me. The government is dead in name only.”
He said he heard that the high temperature will continue for another week.
On August 20, the base of the Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan was rarely exposed due to the significant reduction in the water flow of the Qingyi River and the Minjiang River. On the same day, the Central Meteorological Observatory upgraded the weather drought warning to orange.
Mr. Wu from Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province told The Epoch Times on the 24th that the weather this year is particularly hot, and it will kill people. “There is a thermometer under my electric car, and the sun is relatively dry to 50 or 60 degrees. If the sun is not in the sun, people will get soaked. I can’t stay outside. It is difficult for people who can carry it. Physical fitness To be very good.”
Mr. Wu said that there were also high temperature weather in previous years, but the temperature was not as high as it is now, and the high temperature cycle this year is relatively long. “The water from my water purifier is hot and ready to make milk powder.”
Mainland experts: plan for the worst if there is a continuous drought in summer and autumn
The latest report from “China News Weekly” said that since July, the Yangtze River Basin has been experiencing the worst meteorological drought since 1961, with a rare “reverse dry season in the main flood season”. On August 6, Poyang Lake entered the dry season ahead of schedule, and the water level retreated to 11.99 meters, becoming the earliest year to enter the dry season since records began in 1951, 69 days earlier than the average dry season from 2003 to 2021.
Drought monitoring data from the Jiangxi Provincial Meteorological Bureau on August 20 shows that there are currently 75 counties (cities, districts) in Jiangxi experiencing moderate or above meteorological drought, of which 22 counties (cities, districts) are in severe drought, and 35 counties (cities, districts) are in severe drought. District) Dart Drought. As of August 22, Hubei had a total of 6.5795 million people in 85 counties (cities, districts) in 17 cities (prefectures, municipalities directly under its control, forest areas) affected by drought, and the affected area of crops reached 11.597 million mu, of which 1.0257 million mu was harvested. The direct economic loss was 5.822 billion yuan.
Jiangxi is a major grain-producing province in China. The area around Poyang Lake is the main grain-producing area in Jiangxi. Among the 24 towns and towns under Duchang County, 21 are close to Poyang Lake. The lake shoreline is 308.8 kilometers long, almost the length of the entire Poyang Lake. one third.
Shu Yangchun is a large grain grower in Tutang Town, Duchang County, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province. She contracted more than 2,000 mu of rice across five villages, of which 1,100 mu of double-cropping rice. At the end of July this year, she found that some of the rice leaves began to shrink, and in just a few weeks, the ditches and ponds near the rice fields used to draw water were nearly dry.
Zhou Xiaohua, director of the Agricultural Technology Center of the Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Duchang County, said that after mid-August, some of the late-planted mid-season rice that was in the period of heading and flowering also withered and failed to harvest due to continuous lack of water, and some fields had cracked. “Rice will die as long as it lacks water for 10 to 15 consecutive days. This year’s drought is special, and the continuous high temperature is superimposed. For rice that is heading and blooming, the high temperature will affect the ear setting rate and eventually lead to a decrease in yield.”
Hunan is also the province with the worst-hit agriculture. Wang Jingchen, head of the Agricultural Conditions Analysis and Research Center of Hunan Province, told China News Weekly that Hunan is a hilly area and can only rely on the sky for food, mainly relying on cultivated land with natural rainfall, and the cost of drought resistance is extremely high. With the continuation of high temperature and drought, mountain ponds and small reservoirs in some areas have almost dried up, and sporadic areas have “lost water sources” and cannot guarantee the basic production of crops.
Zheng Fei, a researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Lu Media that according to the analysis of the National Climate Center, there may be summer and autumn droughts in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River this year. If the follow-up drought continues to develop, the management of reservoir groups may also face certain challenges. Therefore, it is necessary to strategically prepare for “resisting severe drought and long-lasting drought”. Drought-hit areas have a “worst-case scenario” to consider.
Overseas experts: natural disasters are inseparable from the CCP’s man-made disasters
On August 24, Li Hengqing, an economist living in the United States, told The Epoch Times that the severe drought in Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan and other provinces and cities will definitely affect agricultural production this year, and the autumn grain production will definitely be reduced.
He believes that extreme weather in China is associated with man-made disasters. The development of hydropower is on a level-by-level basis. For example, many power stations and dams have been built on the Yarlung Zangbo River. After doing so, the original natural environment has been destroyed, which is man-made damage. It also has a bad effect on climate change. The construction of the Three Gorges Dam also caused many problems. The CCP has been in power for more than 70 years. It has always been said that “man will conquer heaven”, “fighting with heaven is endless joy, and fighting with earth is endless joy.” In the end, it is the common people who suffer. The CCP’s policies to manage the country will eventually be taught by nature.
Li Hengqing also pointed out that China’s carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gas emissions are the world‘s largest, which will cause climate warming; and China’s pollution problem is serious, many pollutants in the sky absorb the heat of the sun, making the temperature continue to rise . These are man-made disasters. The current natural disasters are related to the CCP’s endless destruction of nature and human environment over the past few decades.
Responsible editor: Li Muen#