YI MUDAN sighs as her flock of sheep and goats push their way to the water troughs after a morning grazing on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.

“We try to use our well water but there isn’t enough. We have to ask for tankers to come from the town to make sure the animals have enough.”

The drought that brings a frown to the face of this elderly farmer is making itself felt far across China. Horses, cattle and sheep are already beginning to starve in some parts of Inner Mongolia’s grasslands.

In central Sichuan province, China’s grain basket, millions of acres of crops have withered. Across the country, more than six million acres have been ruined — an area 21 per cent larger than in previous years.

Water levels along the mighty Yangtze river, China’s longest river, have dropped dramatically, falling by more than ten metres in a matter of weeks. Where the river flows through the huge city of Chongqing, the water level is just 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) — its lowest in a century.

Seventeen million people across southwest China no longer have access to clean drinking water as a result of the drought.

Worst-hit is Suining, in northern Sichuan, where just 1.3 inches of rain fell between June 21 and July 31 — the smallest amount recorded since 1947. The only source for these poor farmers is the water trucks sent by local officials. Animals are starting to die.

Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister, has called a special meeting and ordered officials in affected provinces to take urgent measures to reduce the impact on farmers.

The ruling Communist Party has repeatedly voiced its concerns about the livelihood of farmers, who account for about two thirds of China’s 1.3 billion people. As economic reforms bring prosperity to residents of cities and coastal regions, the hundreds of millions who still make their living from the land are being left behind. The widening income gap has led to increasing discontent and incidents of unrest have been rising.

Mrs Yi farms her 1,200 sheep and 200 goats across 1,700 acres of grassland but she has rented additional land from neighbours because the deteriorating grass can no longer sustain her animals. Between the tufts more patches of bare earth and sand are clearly visible.

She said: “When my children were young the grass was so long that the only way to find them was to stand on a wall and where I could see the grass moving was where they were playing. Now you could find a needle on the ground.”

Other Mongolian farmers are equally anxious about the grass that is essential for their huge herds to survive in this region of rolling steppes. Zhang Lihua gestured towards the empty grey-green hills and plains stretching into the distance from her small brick home. “The grass is really poor compared with last year. It has hardly rained this year.”

Such natural disasters may no longer bring famine to China but the spectre of farmers with barely enough to eat and of dying animals is a huge anxiety for the country’s leaders in their bid to avoid political instability.

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