China's drought has been slightly eased by rainfall in four drought-hit provinces, an official of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on Tuesday.

E Jingping, secretary-general of the office, said at press conference that moderate or slight rainfall has eased water shortage for 960,000 people and 24.37 million mu (1.62 million hectares) of farmland.

Workers equip the aircraft with catalystic silver iodide for the mission of artificial rainfall operations at Xinzheng International Airport in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, Feb. 8, 2009. A couple of "Transport 7" aircraft of China's Air Force performed artificial rainfall operations in Huaibei of east China's Anhui Province, and Luoyang and Kaifeng of central China's Henan Province separately to relieve local drought on Sunday. [Xinhua]

Currently, 136 million mu (9.07 million hectares) of farmland still suffers from drought. 3.46 million people, 1.66 million heads of livestock face water shortage.

Although drought has been eased in some regions, the disaster is still expected to worsen in February, as little rainfall is forecast in the country's east and northeast areas, E warned.

In parts of the eastern areas, northwest and Yellow River regions, it's been more than 80 days since it rained. In some worst-hit areas, rainfall was 80 percent less compared with the same period last year.

To cope with the most severe drought in decades, the government launched the highest emergency mechanism. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have ordered all-out efforts.

According to E, China has irrigated about 144 million mu (9.6 million hectares) of farmland in the winter, accounting for 60 percent of the total acreage that suffer drought.

He estimated that other drought-hit wheat farmland would finish irrigation in the next 10 days.

E said the government will make further efforts to combat drought. More investment will go to water resources facilities construction, in a bid to ensure water supply and expand domestic consumption.

Last week, the central government decided to earmark 400 million yuan (58.56 million U.S. dollars) in drought relief for local governments. The Ministry of Finance allocated 86.7 billion yuan from its reserve to drought-hit areas in relief funds.

The drought has hit more than 40 percent of the nation's total wheat cropland, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Eight provinces were severely hit: Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and Gansu.

(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2009)