Drought hurt rice, poultry in China's Sichuan

BEIJING, Aug 22 (Reuters) A severe drought, which has left over 18 million people short of drinking water, damaged half of the farmland, mainly paddy fields, in southwest Chinese province of Sichuan, local agricultural officials said.

''The severe drought had affected more than half of farmland in the province,'' the official from the Sichuan agriculture bureau yesterday said. He added that the northeast part was the worst-hit and that some paddy fields had dried up.

But he said heavy rains forecast for the province in coming days would help ease drought but would come too late for the crops. The bureau was still investigating the extent of grain losses from the drought.

The province, together with the municipality of Chongqing, produce some 15 million tonnes of rice a year, accounting for 8.3 percent of the country's total.

The drought, the worst in 50 years, has helped pushed up prices for vegetables as well as poultry and pork, but has not had much effect on grains, he said.

Farmers have given up breeding of chickens and ducks.

But the province still has sufficient rice stocks for its need.

The agriculture ministry said flooding in south China had helped boost the country's rice prices since June. Wholesale rice prices rose as much as 6.7 per cent in July on year.

The China National Grain and Oils Information Centre (CNGOIC) has not adjusted its estimate on the country's rice output, which it had earlier put at 186 million tonnes.

But some grain officials expected rice output to be lower than last year's 180 million tonnes because of typhoon and drought damage.

REUTERS DKA BS0848