Three killed, one missing as heavy rain batters China; 30 million tonnes of bumper wheat harvest impacted

As higher-than-normal rain battersvarious areas of China, at least three people have died while onewas reported missing from southwestern China, reports Anadolu citing local media.As of Thursday, authorities have reportedlyevacuated some 32,200 people from flood-affected regions.

Rains have heavily affected China's Yiliang County of Yunnan province. Chinese daily Global Times reports that due to the heavier-than-usual rains, authorities have begun to evacuate more than 300 students in the area.

Red rainstorm signal

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Yiliang County's meteorological observatory has updated the rainstorm with a red warning. This means that heavy rain exceeding 50 millimetres in an hour will persist.

On Wednesday, the local Water Resources and Meteorological Bureau issued a meteorological warning for mountain torrent disasters.

Since early this week, China's southern and southwestern regions have been grappling with flood disasters caused by heavy rainfall.

China's granary and rain

Henan, which is China's largest wheat-growing province, is also expected to be hit by a torrent of rain in the coming days as per a weather prediction released on Thursday by the state forecasters.

The rain is expected to complicate further efforts to harvest grain that has already been damaged by a wetter-than-usual May.

A higher-than-normal rainfall hit Henan, often called China's Granary, in the last week of May. This came just days ahead of the harvest of wheat planted last winter, reportsReuters.

Rainfall, harvest and China's export

Reuters reported that the rains have caused some grain to sprout or decay.Winter wheat accounts for the majority of the nation's annual output.

It is not just Henan, but many other key wheat-growing Chinese provinces likeAnhui, Hebei, Jiangsu, and southern Shaanxi, have also been drenched.

"The area affected is relatively large ... This basically covers the wheat-producing areas in central and southern China,"said Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst with Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultancy.

This year China was expecting a bumper crop of around 137 million tonnes,of which 30 million tonnes will likelybe impacted by the rain. Of this, 10 to 20 million likely sprouted, which means it is no longer fit for human consumption, said Ma.

Emergency teams

China's agricultural ministry this week urged local authorities to dispatch emergency teams to drain the waterlogged fields and to save as much of the crop as possible, speed up access by harvesters and mobilise drying machinery.

China and rains

While China is no stranger to floods, droughts or abnormal weather patterns, the recent wet weather, as per Reuters, is the worst to occur during China's wheat-ripening periods in around 10 years.

(With inputs from agencies)

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