Rain to relieve severe drought in China wheat area

Rain is expected to fall this week on arid farmland in China's major wheat producing province, which is suffering its worst drought in six decades. The weather service of Shandong Province said Thursday that "sufficient" rainfall would start late Thursday in the province's southeast and expand to other areas in the next three days. Medium to heavy rain and snow are expected in some parts of Shandong over the weekend, with a maximum precipitation reaching 35 millimeters. Rainfall across Shandong since mid-September last year has been only 13 millimeters on average. Winter wheat accounts for 95 percent of China's gross...