Moderate rain fall and massive irrigation works have reached drought-hit northern China, easing threats of severe losses to the country's grain basin, said a senior Chinese official.

Water Resources Vice Minister E Jingping told a Tuesday news conference that two days of rain in four affected provinces and efforts to divert and deliver water to parched wheat fields had yielded results, with 60% of the afflicted farmland irrigated.

Last week, the Chinese government called for a first grade emergency response to dealing with the worst drought in five decades, whereby 15 provinces were affected, of which, eight severely - including the main grain producing regions in the north.

The drought stunted the growth of winter wheat crops covering over nine million hectares of farmland and some three million people faced drinking water problem.

The government has thus far allocated 350 million yuan (51.2 million US dollars) for relief works and promised 86.7 billion yuan (12.6 billion US dollars) of hand-out to struggling farmers.

E said the situation had improved and that if the pace of relief works progressed smoothly, nearly all the affected farmland would receive water within the coming 10 days.

However, the vice minister also warned that rainfall in February was expected to remain low, and that if there was no rainfall at all in the next 15 days, agricultural production would face severe challenge.

"We believe with the counter measures in place, if carried out effectively and coupled with better weather condition, grain production will not be adversely affected. We still expect a good summer harvest," E said, adding it was still hard to measure potential losses as the situation remained fluid.

The severe drought has raised concern over the food security situation in China, but the State Administration of Grain (SAG) maintained that there was no threat, thanks to surplus grain harvests over the past five years straight.

Last year alone, China produced 114 million tons of wheat, 5.7 million tons more than the previous year, according to open data.

As for the output of rice, China produced 193 million tons of it last year, while demand for it remained around 170 million tons annually.  

An official from the SAG told the EO that grain reserves - especially rice and wheat - in the country had reached record high in recent years.

Initial estimations had it that the on-going drought might destroy some 2.5% or two million tons of wheat crops, however, a SAG official told the EO that such number could be deemed insignificant, saying: "Every year, this or that natural disaster may destroy some 50 million tons of crops in China."

During the good harvest years, the Chinese government had purchased most of the surplus produce through its vast network of national grain reserves stations. In addition, the country has stringent laws and regulations to restrict the trade of grain, a staple diet for the nation.

The outcome of these control measures was seen during the global alarm over skyrocketing food prices last year, when China did not experience dramatic price surges in grain products like rice and wheat.

Lin Erda, director for Climate Change Center under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said there was still time to salvage the damages incurred by the on-going drought started since late last year.

"There is still four to five months left before the crops mature, with proper damage control and effective irrigation, we can still look forward to a good harvest in the summer," he said.