A prolonged drought in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China is expanding due to high temperatures. Local herdsmen face the challenge of irrigating their crops and desertification of the grassland.

Bilige, a herdsman in Erdos city in Inner Mongolia, has to rely on an eight-meter-deep well for irrigating his cornfield. He grows corn to feed his cattle. As he cannot pump enough water out of the well, irrigation for his cornfield has become impossible and he's faced with losing his flock of 100 sheep and 20 oxen because of lack of fodder.

Bilige said, "I usually take care of more than 3.3 hectares of cornfield, while this year, I could only manage 1.3 hectares, due to the lack of water. I am terribly worried these days. As I have no money to buy fodder, my sheep are now in very poor condition and they cannot be sold at a good price when they're fully grown. I have already borrowed 10,000 yuan from others and I might have to face another financial loss, of 30,000 yuan."

Of the 13.3 million hectares of grassland in Hangjin Banner in Erdos city, 80 percent has signs of decertification.

Li Yunliang, deputy director of Agricultural Bureau of Hangjin Banner, said, "There is some green grass within 20 kilometers around the seat of Hangjin Banner's government, owing largely to a mild rainfall in some areas on June 14th. The seedlings will dry out and die if no more rainfall comes in the near future."

According to the Flood and Drought Prevention Headquarters of Inner Mongolia, more than 1.6 million hectares of crops in the autonomous region have been hit by the drought, with 600,000 hectares of crops drying out. Local government has invested 1.2 million yuan in efforts against the drought, with more than 1.6 million people involved.

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