About 3 million hectares of crops in the provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu have been significantly affected by the drought. About 3.3 million people and 950,000 livestock face shortages of drinking water.

Water levels of Lake Poyang in Jiangxi and Lake Dongting in Hunan are at an historic low, with serious repercussions for nearby regions.

Hu Zhaoqi, from Paishan village in Huarong County, one of the areas worst affected by the drought near Lake Dongting, told the South China Morning Post that he used to farm 8,600 m2 of rice paddies generating about 20,000 yuan in annual revenue. However, water shortages this year have almost killed off 5,300 square metres of early rice, and the other 3,300 square metres were too dry to plant seedlings. More than 1,300 villagers in Paishan say their crops, mostly early rice, have been devastated by the worst drought they have ever seen.

In addition to wiping July harvests, water shortages could affect autumn rice, normally planted right after the July harvest.

The Huarong county government said that rainfall from November to early this month was 65 per cent less than normal, with at least 140,000 people in the county seat having difficulties getting fresh water supplies. Lake Dongting is now less than a third the size it was in May last year. The Huayi reservoir, the county's biggest, has almost dried up. If things do not change, no more water will be available for human use and irrigation.

Around Lake Poyang, China’s largest, harvests have been wiped out, cattle are dying of thirst and fish stocks are nearly wiped out.

Hunan and Jiangxi, each with more than 13,000 square kilometres of rice paddies, account for nearly 47 per cent of the mainland's total area of early rice.

Rice prices have increased recently in some areas because of the drought affecting China’s main staple food.

Starting in the second half of May, Chinese authorities began discharging more water from the Three Gorges Dam, to ease the shortage.  However, many suspect that this huge project has had a major impact on the environment and is one of the main causes of the drought.

Hundreds of thousands of local families rely exclusively on farming for their livelihood. Many now fret that they might be forced to move to the cities to find work.

Moderate to heavy rain is expected in the mid-and lower reaches of the river starting on Friday until 7 June, the National Meteorological Centre said on its website.

In fast-growing China, as millions of farmers look up into the sky hoping for rain, Agriculture Minister Han Changfu said on his department’s website that he expected a bumper wheat harvest this summer.

In fact, the winter wheat crop, which makes up the bulk of the mainland's summer grain harvest, is expected to increase for the eighth year in a row, especially in the southwestern provinces. Anti-drought measures are also expected.

Still, many experts are sceptical about the government’s theoretical musings compared to real data. The five southwestern provinces contribute only 5 per cent of the mainland's total output, sources said in April last year, when the area was in the grip of a severe drought.

Conversely, the government claims that wheat output grew every year since 2004. Analysts note for their part that, since 2007, the country has had to endure floods, droughts and unusually cold weather.

Indeed, imports of rice, wheat and corn, the three major grains, all climbed last year, with wheat imports up 36 per cent.