As farmers in Chongqing and Hunan in southwest and central China are salvaging crops affected by torrential rains-triggered floods, authorities are ramping up relief efforts to minimize damage to grain production.
Pengshui County in Chongqing saw a fresh round of downpours from Thursday to Friday, with the maximum precipitation in 24 hours reaching 166.6 millimeters. Flash floods triggered by the heavy rains submerged swathes of crops.
The floods inundated corns and sweet potatoes in Ping'an Town of the county.
"The whole base is flooded. The water is 60 to 70 centimeters deep, somewhere up to one meter." said Chen Jigao, mayor of Ping'an Town.
The torrential rains damaged crops of corn, sweet potatoes and medicinal herbs in many parets of Pengshui. The local government has dispatched officials and heavy-duty machinery to carry out relief work.
Heavy rains have also affected Hunan Province in central China, one of the country's major rice-producing regions.
In Wuqiangxi Town, Yuanling County, farmlands in some villages have been inundated, seriously threatening the rice plants that are currently in a critical growth period.
Tangjiaping Village, with a flat terrain and close to the Yuanjiang River, is the leading single-season indica rice producer in Wuqiangxi Town, with its 73 hectares of rice to be harvested in late September or early October. The seedlings in the fields have grown to almost knee high, and now are in the tillering stage, when the plant is very sensitive to moisture.
Because of the flooding, the soil at Tangjiaping Village is extremely saturated.
Preliminary statistics show that some 27 hectares of the village's 73 hectares of paddy fields have been covered with mud and gravel brought by the torrents, with the silt reaching a meter deep at worst.
Local agricultural experts warned that receding floodwaters could easily drain the fertility in the fields, resulting in a decrease in grain production. They said the priority now is to clean the surface of the farmland, lift the fallen seedlings, promptly apply fertilizer or replace them with other crops.
The county agricultural bureau has also sent experts to the village to guide farmers to assess the affected farmland and find solutions.
Floods damage crops in Chongqing, Hunan
