Severe Drought in Ejin Banner, Inner Mongolia

The drought investigation conducted by the agriculture and animal husbandry department in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in late May this year revealed that the drought in Ejina Banner, the westernmost province of Inner Mongolia, was severe. The drinking water wells in 80 eyes dried up and thousands of livestock died. The total number of 535 households in the entire county was 51847. Head (only) livestock have difficulty drinking.

Since last year, the Ejina flag has experienced continuous high temperature and little rain, together with the reduction of discharge volume in the Heihe River in winter and spring, the farmland and grass pasture have not been timely irrigated, and the groundwater has not been effectively recharged, resulting in severe drought in the Ejin Banner, resulting in nearly 80 human and livestock drinking wells. The water level in the dry and remaining wells has also dropped significantly, especially in the Matu Mountain, Sumu, Haribuygdeyinwula, and Dinhwabu Town. The existing water reserves can no longer meet the normal water use of humans and animals. Affected by this, there were a total of 535 herdsmen in the entire banner, 51,847 (only) livestock drinking water difficulties, thousands of (only) livestock died, only over 230 peaks in the towns of Wula and Dalai Hob, between Haribulzhdur. The death of camels and nearly 900 sheep caused direct economic losses of more than 1.7 million yuan. The drought situation has seriously affected agricultural and animal husbandry production.

As of the end of May, the Ejina flag returned to the grassland along the river, the plant height decreased by 2% compared with the same period, the coverage decreased by 3%, and the unit of grass production was reduced by 2 kg to 15 kg per mu. The forage grass reserve was seriously insufficient. The material gap is about 700 tons. At the same time, the drought caused grassland pests to increase. Grassland rodent damage occurred in an area of ​​4.2 million mu, seriously damaging 2 million mu.

At present, the local agricultural and animal husbandry departments have already prevented 500,000 mu of rat damage. Meteorology, water conservancy, civil affairs and other departments are organizing drought resistance for farmers and herdsmen.