Major peach-producing regions in China’s Liaoning province are drying up, threatening this year’s harvest.

Jinzhou is known as the "hometown of yellow peaches." August is traditionally when the fruits are plucked. However this year, over 80 percent of the region’s peach tree farmlands are affected by the extreme drought. The output is estimated to fall by half. With the drought disrupting water supplies in the region, some farmers have to cover a few miles to get water for irrigation.

Despite their best efforts, peaches are still withering to the size of a ping-pong ball.

"Peaches were picked and discarded to protect the peach trees. Because the fruit absorbs water which the trees desperately need. So we just pick the peaches that are too small to be sold, and let them rot on the ground," Peach farmer Liang Shousheng said.

A reduced harvest is also affecting peach processing companies.

Niu Mingwei, manager of one of these companies, has had to cut down on orders due to the shortage.

"Many of our clients order our product in advance, and now we are afraid of taking too many orders. We only take the most recent orders, based on the current production capacity. We won’t take orders unless we get enough peaches," Niu said.

To cope with the aftermath brought up by the drought, the local government has set up 32 water supply stations in the region.

Water trucks have also been dispatched to provide irrigation water for remote mountainous regions.

"The water we provide is free, fruit farmers only need to pay for their transportation expenses," Huang Guoqiang, general agronomist with Forestry & Water Conservancy Bureau, said.

Everyday over 10,000 tons of water are being transported to irrigate some 2,000 hectares of peach farmlands in the region.

Local authorities are also working to protect local processing companies.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/