Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s biggest grain producer, is using its air force to try to make rain in rural areas struck by the nation’s worst drought in five decades.

Two planes were dispatched from Guangzhou to the provinces of Anhui and Henan to battle the drought, the official Xinhua News Agency said today. Yesterday, parts of Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hubei provinces received as much as 5.5 millimeters (0.2 inches) of rain after artillery shells and rockets were fired into clouds to disperse chemicals, the China Meteorological Administration said today.

China has raised its drought-emergency alert to the highest level for the first time to stave off the threat to crops, livestock and rural incomes. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have ordered “all-out efforts” to fight the dry spell.

“At this critical time, ensuring stable growth of grain production and farmers’ income is related to the nation’s overall economy and is of great significance,” Wen said during his visit to Henan province yesterday and today, according to China National Radio Web site.

The Ministry of Finance allocated 86.7 billion yuan ($12.7 billion) from its reserves as relief funds for drought-stricken regions on Feb. 6.

China will also use water from the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, the nation’s two longest, to irrigate farmland in the parched regions, the Xinhua News Agency said today, citing the Ministry of Water Resources.

Irrigating Crops

About half of 160 million mu (10.6 million hectares) of winter wheat hurt by the drought had been irrigated as of Feb. 6, according to a statement on the government Web site yesterday.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and PetroChina Co., the nation’s two biggest oil companies, were urged by the government to boost supplies to rural areas to help counter the drought, the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner, said yesterday.

State Grid Corp. of China., the larger of the nation’s two electricity distributors, also pledged to ensure power supplies to drought-hit areas. The company plans to allocate 500 million yuan to build grids in Henan province, which will benefit 2.5 million mu of farmland, it said in an e-mailed statement today.

Parts of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Hubei and Anhui provinces may get as much as 8 millimeters of rainfall today, which would help relieve the drought “to some extent,” the Meteorological Administration said today on its Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Winnie Zhu in Shanghai at wzhu4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 8, 2009 05:12 EST