(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-03 23:19

BEIJING-- Snow-hit farmers in south China are sparing no effort in reducing losses with the help of local technicians ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival.

Zhang Guoqing, a 54-year-old farmer in Huangma Village, Nanchang County in the eastern Jiangxi Province, one of the hardest-hit regions, was sweeping snow off his greenhouse with a cloth-wrapped stick on Sunday morning.

"I've never seen such a long period of snow in my lifetime. My family relies on my greenhouse vegetables to get through the holiday. They must never collapse." said Zhang, staring at the one-centimeter-deep snow on the ground.

Adjacent to the greenhouses, orange planters were rocking the branches to shave off the snow and burning straw to warm the orange trees. Fish farmers were breaking ice and drawing up underground water to warm the ponds with the help of county technicians.

The worst snow disaster in five decades has decimated southern China since mid-January by freezing crops. A new cold snap will affect the country's central and eastern regions in 10 days with more rain and snow. This would devastate the already severe snow-combating situation, according to a Central Meteorological Station forecast on Sunday.

"The blizzard disaster in the south would have a severe impact on winter crops, and the impact on fresh vegetables could be catastrophic in certain areas," Chen Xiwen, director of the office of the central leading group on rural work, said on Thursday.

Cole (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, among others) and other vegetables, oranges and wheat, in particular, suffered severely from the snow, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA).

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