Chinese farmers bid to save crops amid scorching drought

Gan Bingdong stands in the basin of a community reservoir near his farm in south-west China (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

Hundreds of persimmon trees that should be loaded with yellow fruit lie wilted in Gan Bingdong’s greenhouse in south-western China, adding to mounting farm losses in a scorching summer that is the country’s driest in six decades.

His farm south of the industrial metropolis of Chongqing lost half its vegetable crop in heat as high as 41C and a drought that has shrunk the giant Yangtze River and wilted crops across central China.