China forecasts rains, not enough to lift wheat drought: minister

BEIJING: Rains forecast for the rest of the week in most of China's northern wheat areas may not be enough to lift drought in Shandong and Hebei provinces, the country's no.2 and no.3 wheat growing regions, the minister of water resources said.

Chen Lei warned the situation could possibly worsen in March due to lower-than-normal precipitation forecasts and as many farmers returned to cities after the Lunar New Year, leading to a shortage of labourers for irrigation efforts.

"Rainfall in early March in the northern areas would still be lower than normal years. The drought situation may further develop and could become more severe, so we are not optimistic," Chen told a conference late on Wednesday.

Some 26 percent of drought-hit wheat areas have no irrigation facilities, where farmers need either to dig wells or transport water from elsewhere, said Chen, also the deputy head of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Forecasts in China's wheat belt helped drive down Chicago Board of Trade wheat prices during overnight trading.

Drought-hit wheat areas in eight major provinces fell 2.5 percent as of Tuesday from Monday as farmers expanded irrigation, according to the agriculture ministry.