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China adds 1.2b yuan to drought-hit regions

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-07 20:20

BEIJING - The Chinese Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Tuesday said it had added 1.2 billion yuan (about $182.65 million) to help five regions along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River make a success of disaster relief work.

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"The emergency allocation is primarily meant to aid drought-stricken Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan provinces in restoring agricultural production and fishing," said the MOF in a statement posted at its website.

The additional funding came after the MOF had previously injected nearly 1.14 billion yuan to the five provinces for efforts to combat drought there.

Out of the newly added funding, 400 million yuan will be spent in subsidizing 200 counties' purchases of equipment to fight drought or floods, while the rest will be used to subsidize farmers' buying of means of production, including fries, seeds, fertilizers and diesel fuel, according to the statement.

The lingering drought has parched the fertile lands of the Yangtze River Valley, with the lowest levels of rainfall since 1961.

Continuous rainfall in June will alleviate the drought but might cause flooding in some areas, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) has warned.