The Ministry of Agriculture on February 9 urged more measures be taken to minimize the impact of a lasting drought in central and north China.

The country's winter wheat-producing regions had suffered a severe drought since October 2010, and the possibility of a spring drought is growing, Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

As of February 9, the drought had affected about 7.73 million hectares of winter wheat in eight provinces, including Henan, Anhui, Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Jiangsu.

Drought-affected areas accounted for 42.4 percent of the total winter wheat-growing areas in the eight provinces, said the statement of the Ministry of Agriculture.