Dry Winter Worries Chinese Farmers
ZHANG: An unusually dry winter in Chinas northern provinces could evolve into a drought. Farmers fear the potential threat to their livelihoods. STORY: Farmers in Chinas northern Hebei Province say there has been no snow or rain all winter. Rows of sprouting winter wheat have started to push through the dry cracked soil, and farmers will need to rely on the irrigation network to water their crops this year. [Mr. Zhang, Farmer]: "This year's weather has been bad, last year was the same. The ground is fighting the drought." Local media are talking about a "severe drought rarely seen in history." An estimated 43 percent of the winter wheat sources have been affected by the lack of rain or snow. Li Minggui and his wife farm one-fifth of a hectare in the flat plains near Xingtai, in Hebei Province. Farmers are supplementing their income by making construction materials at a local factory. [Li Minggui, Farmer]: "This year the soil is quite dry, the ground had to be irrigated at the end of January." Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner Li Yun, warns that China is no exception to changing global weather patterns. [Li Yun, Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner]: "Because China is such a large developing country and prone to natural disasters, as global warming deepens there might be more and more extreme weather conditions such as typhoon, flooding and drought." Farmers in Henan, Anhui and Shandong provinces may be hit especially hard. People who left to work in factories and construction sites are losing their jobs with the economic downturn and may have to return to drought-stricken fields.
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