STORY: Zhang Junying, a corn farmer in China’s Shandong province was moved to tears on Thursday (June 20) as she realized her fields are now barren and destroyed.
She, alongside many other farmers in the province’s capital Jinan, have found themselves facing ruin as drought and a heatwave has seized northern China.
“I hope that the government can reduce the burden on farmers. It would be best if water could be supplied to farmers. This is the voice coming from a farmer’s heart. It’s hard for us to say. It’s hard as you can see. It’s so hard for farmers. We wake up at 4 a.m. in the morning, and we haven’t eaten yet its 9 a.m. It’s so hard for us to say this. Life is hard for farmers.”
Weeks of scarce rainfall and blistering heat have wrung this part of China dry.
Shandong among them, a major agricultural province with over 7 million acres of corn planted this season alone, according to local media.
Despite repairing wells and switching up planting schedules, some farmers feel helpless in the face of the crisis, including Wang Cuiping:
“The drought is very severe. It hasn’t rained for more than two months. There was no water in the river. I can only mix pesticide with tap water.”
On Wednesday (June 19), the authorities in Shandong issued a heat alert – warning temperatures could reach up to nearly 40 degrees.
Parts of Hebei, Henan and Shandong, around and south of the capital Beijing could see temperatures hitting 44 degrees, potentially breaking historical records for the month of June, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.
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