Kunming and much of the rest of Yunnan have been enjoying idyllic cloudless days for most of the last five months, but the azure skies have concealed an increasingly dire issue: Yunnan is running out of water.

In November of last year, Kunming officials were asserting that should Kunming not receive any precipitation this winter, there would still be enough water in the city's reservoirs to provide the city with water until late spring 2010.

Fast-forward to today, and the government's no-need-to-worry tone has given way to grim statistics that underscore the severity of the current drought, the worst the province has seen in 60 years.

What's the damage looking like at this point? Nearly five million people are having difficulty accessing drinking water, forest fires are up 600 percent and hydropower generation has been halved. Estimates of drought-related agricultural losses are currently at 6.5 billion yuan (US$952 million).

Aside from Kunming, areas suffering most from the drought include Lincang, Pu'er, Jianshui, Yuxi, Chuxiong, Dali and Baoshan, where 300,000 people lack access to enough drinking water. The drought is also causing water prices to skyrocket. In Wenshan one cubic meter of drinking water is reportedly selling for as much as 100 yuan.

In some of Yunnan's more remote areas, villagers have to walk to other villages and towns up to 20 kilometers away in order to buy water at high prices, then carry the water home on their backs.

The provincial government has set aside 389 million yuan for drought relief, which will be allocated for distributing drinking water to the areas most in need and irrigating more than 700,000 of the 2 million hectares of crops affected by the drought.

Officials estimate that more than 500,000 hectares of crops have already been destroyed by lack of water. Yunnan is also expected to produce 40 percent less grain during this summer's growing season. Farmers are also struggling to provide water for 3.3 million large livestock.

To make matters worse, the drought is fueling an increase in forest fires before the rainy season begins in late spring. Firefighters around the province have battled about 59 blazes in the past five weeks, according to Xinhua Net, though most have been small enough to have been successfully extinguished in one day. There is now a jumbo helicopter stationed at Kunming Wujiaba International airport to assist in firefighting.

Several fires have burned in the areas around Kunming recently, including on Qipan Mountain to the west, forests near Shuanglong in the northeast, and Changchong Mountain in the north.

We followed up our recent bicycle trip to Chongchang Mountain with a visit to survey the fire damage over the weekend. Though the mountain retains its verdant, forested slopes and panoramic views of Kunming, it has lost some of its charm: the summit is a mass of rock and black charred grass and smells strongly of smoke.

The timing for the drought conditions couldn't be much worse, as Chinese New Year approaches and people around the province stock up on fireworks to set off in celebration of spring's arrival. In light of the drought and superdry conditions, the Kunming municipal government has shortened the 25-day fireworks sales season to 12 days, with sales ending February 19.

Update: Fireworks sales are now banned after February 16.

Crop image: CCTV

Kunming to roll out free public bicycles
The Kunming municipal government has announced a plan to provide bicycles for free use by the public, according to a Dushi Shibao report. The report said the plan has been received by the public with approval, tempered with a skepticism that the bikes will all be stolen.

Dali posts record holiday numbers
During this year's eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival 'Golden Week' holiday, Dali set new records for holiday visitors and tourist revenue, according to a Kunming Information Hub report.

Approximately 590,000 domestic and international tourists visited Dali in the first eight days of October, an increase of 44.9 percent over the same holidays one year ago. Revenue from tourism was 355 million yuan (US$52 million).

In addition to the traditional draws of Dali's old town and Three Pagodas, tourist visits to nearby Eryuan (洱源), Heqing (鹤庆) and Bingchuan (宾川) also reached new highs. Tourists driving their own vehicles – primarily from Kunming as well as Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi – accounted for more than 90,000 of the visitors to the Dali area over the holiday, the report said.

Yunnan banana joins Millennium Seed Bank
The Yunnan banana, aka Musa itinerans aka bajiao (芭蕉), has been added to Kew's Millennium Seed Bank at the Royal Botanical Gardens in the UK. The bajiao seeds were provided to the seed bank by the Kunming Institute of Botany.

The addition of bajiao seeds from Yunnan also marked the 10 percent mark for the seed bank, which now has seeds of 24,200 species in its possession, with a goal of ultimately collecting seeds of 242,000 species. The seed bank is aiming to mitigate the possibility of extinction for the world's flowering plants, 70 percent of which are under threat.

The bajiao plant, which exists in an area spanning from Yunnan into Southeast Asia and India, is threatened by the increased clearing of jungle for agriculture. Despite not being a major crop for human consumption, it can be used to breed disease-resistant hybrid banana varieties. It is also a staple for the endangered Asian elephant and other animals in the region.

The bajiao seeds have been dried and are now being stored at -20 degrees Celsius in a US$131 million facility, located in Sussex. The seed bank estimates that as many as one quarter of the world's flowering plant species may be on the brink of extinction by the middle of this century.

Dr Jakob Klein is a lecturer in social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London who has spent years studying food production in China, most recently investigating the production of organic foods in Yunnan for consumption elsewhere. Recently back in Kunming investigating Yunnan food culture, Klein spoke with GoKunming about the state of Yunnan's organic food industry and where it's headed:

GoKunming: What initially piqued your interest in the organic food market in Kunming?

Dr Jakob Klein: When planning research in 2005 on emerging organic food networks in China, Kunming stood out as an ideal place for several reasons. The province is promoted as a centre of biodiversity, and the city itself has an active and internationally well-connected environmentalist scene. Some of these groups have been actively furthering organic food consumption in Kunming and I was curious to learn more about them.

Furthermore, unlike Beijing and Shanghai, where markets in organics and other ecologically certified foods have been around for some time, in Kunming they have emerged more recently, giving me the opportunity to follow developments almost from the beginning. I was also excited by the recent development of Yunnan's export-led horticulture – the products being sold mostly to China's Eastern seaboard and increasingly to Southeast Asia – and was keen to learn about the possible role of organics in this, and whether this might have an impact on local consumption and debates.

GK: What are the main organic products produced in Yunnan?

JK: Tea is by far the most significant, whether in terms of acreage, market value or number of certified producers. Other important products include fresh green vegetables and green beans, root vegetables, rice, fruit juices, walnuts and honey. There is now also one certified organic pork producer in the province.

GK: During your research in Kunming, what did you find the prevalent concept of organic food among local residents to be?

JK: The term 'organic food' (有机食品) is not widely used beyond the industry and the small number of committed consumers. Many Kunmingers have not heard the term at all, and others find it awkward – it carries none of the positive connotations of the English term, if anything it is associated with organic chemistry. However, other terms such as 'green food' (绿色食品), 'ecological food' (生态食品) and 'no public harm food' (无公害食品) have become part of Kunmingers' vocabulary.

Indeed, it is not uncommon now to find food vendors, especially those who claim to have grown the foods themselves, referring to their (uncertified) vegetables as 'green foods' or 'ecological foods'. Several interviewees tell me that these terms, which many use interchangeably, imply that the foods have been produced without chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and many describe the foods as being 'natural' and 'healthy'.

At the same time, people are often sceptical of the various 'ecologically certified' foods found in supermarkets, and this has partly to do with a widespread distrust of labels and partly with the common perception that supermarket vegetables in general are 'not fresh'.

GK: What does it take to be certified as organic in China?

JK: Quite a lot of money and organizational capacity! This is one of the reasons why none of the certified producers in Yunnan are peasant farmers, but instead agribusinesses that either contract out production to farmers and/or hire workers. Usually it takes about three years to convert to organic production, and once certified, producers are inspected annually. Criteria include, above all, a rejection of the use of agrichemicals and GMOs [genetically modified organisms], but there are also other environmental criteria, for example to do with water quality and geographical distance from 'conventional' producers.

GK: How do Chinese organic standards compare to those in other countries?

JK: China's main domestic certifier, the Organic Food Development Center (OFDC), is accredited by IFOAM, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, and the standards are comparable to those of other similarly recognized organizations, such as Eco-Cert or the Soil Association.

At the same time, whether we are talking about China, California or Italy it is important to recognize that organic certification schemes, even assuming that rules are consistently adhered to, actually allow for a great variety of 'organic' farming practices with different philosophies and different environmental and social effects.

GK: What is the difference between foods certified as 'Green Food' and food certified as organic in China?

JK: Green Food and Organic Food are certified by two different organizations affiliated with different government bodies. Green Food allows for the limited use of certain chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other agrichemicals. However, a second tier of Green Food, labelled 'AA', is produced mostly for export markets and is internationally recognized as 'organic'.

GK: Demographically speaking, what types of Kunming residents are likely to spend extra grocery money on organic foods?

JK: There are no reliable data on this. Some organic producers and retailers have described the typical organic consumer as 'well-educated' and earning a high income. My own research with Kunming food shoppers, which is largely qualitative, suggests that regular consumers of organics tend to be found among the 'new rich', and also that some Kunmingers associate such foods with elite consumption habits and practices of social distinction.

According to some retailers, organics are particularly popular among women and among the elderly. Again, this is to some extent supported in my interviews with shoppers, and among these 'segments' organics fit into wider strategies of health – not only for themselves but also for their families. After all, women are often the main food shoppers in Kunming households, and in many multi-generational households elderly members do a lot of the family's shopping and cooking.

GK: Have food safety problems such as the recent melamine scandal brought more attention to organic produce?

JK: Undoubtedly. The melamine scandal is only the most recent in a series of food safety scares, which have been widely reported in the Chinese media since the 1990s. My interviews with Kunmingers suggest that in recent years their main food safety concerns have shifted from risks associated with spoilage and poor hygiene in kitchens or markets – which they describe as more manageable – to worries about 'contamination' (污染) in the production process itself, including adulteration, industrial pollution and – especially – the use or overuse of chemical pesticides, fertilizers and growth hormones.

Those informants who do purchase 'organic' products invariably cite these concerns as a key reason for doing so. For their part, purveyors of organics market their products as 'natural', 'healthy', 'hygienic' foods that can help consumers manage food safety risks, and environmental activists promoting organic food consumption convey similar messages.

GK: Most of Yunnan's organic produce leaves the province for markets such as Beijing and Shanghai; when do you see a significant portion of Yunnan's organic food output being consumed in Yunnan?

JK: Not anytime soon. Even producers that have previously focussed on the Kunming market are increasingly looking to the more lucrative domestic coastal and export markets. Having said that, the two developments are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and some observers argue that China's growing importance as an exporter of organic foods is having a knock-on effect on domestic markets, and the same may happen in Yunnan.

GK: What impact is the consumption of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and hormones in non-organic food having on China's health?

JK: This is a complex and hotly debated issue, and not one that I am especially qualified to answer. Let me just say a few things about pesticides. First, although underreported there is growing documentation of the health effects on appliers of pesticides, i.e. farmers. These involve both acute pesticide poisonings, in some cases leading to deaths, and various chronic effects including cancers.

When it comes to consumers the effects of currently used pesticides are less well known, although this obviously does not mean that they do not exist, not least if we consider the frequent reports in China of vegetables being sold with illegal amounts of pesticide residues. Again, there is an issue of acute poisonings often going unreported or undetected, and there is insufficient knowledge about the cumulative effects of low-level exposure through food consumption to a variety of agrichemicals and pollutants.

Yesterday, Kunming's Food Safety Commission made its mid-year report on food safety and inspection. According to the briefing, 62,192 establishments were inspected under special regulations regarding misuse of food additives and non-food additives.

Recent food safety scares, most notably the melamine cases of 2008, have raised the profile of food safety issues.

According to the report, this year the Kunming Agriculture Bureau carried out special monitoring of veterinary drugs and illegal animal feed additives. Samples from Kunming's 14 counties and city districts all gave negative results for Clenbuterol, a pig feed additive that has been implicated in food scares in other parts of China. Fresh eggs and milk in the samples showed no signs of Sudan red or melamine residues.

Tests for vegetable pesticide residues at selected locations including Wal-Mart and the Chenggong Longcheng Vegetable Wholesale Market gave a 98.4 percent pass rate.

Yunnan is renowned for its wide range of wild mushrooms, which are widely seen as being safe due to their natural growing environment. The report stated that 15 samples of edible fungi had a pass rate of 100% for pesticide residues. However, three of the samples showed traces of fluorescent whitening agents.

From 32 stores selling hot water pot foods (for example, tripe), nine out of 73 samples (12.3%) tested positive for formaldehyde. Similar products at large-scale supermarkets and chains didn't fare much better – here the detection rate was 11%.

Tests of preserved meat products in 38 establishments detected sodium nitrite in 7.7% of samples. Sodium nitrite's usage is carefully regulated in the production of preserved meat products in westernised countries, due to concerns about its toxicity, especially when exposed to high temperatures.

The report makes particular mention of companies specialising in tableware disinfection. Some restaurants in Kunming bulk outsource washing of their chopsticks and crockery – often noticeable from the plastic shrink-wrap these items are packed in before they're opened for customers. Currently, Kunming has more than 60 of these businesses, of which only 25 qualified. The report advises consumers to look for an oval logo issued by the city hygiene department on the wrapper of disinfected tableware.

After years of sometimes confused policy in which industrial hemp was lumped together with its psychoactive cousin marijuana, the Chinese government is now actively promoting hemp cultivation as a tool for lifting rural Chinese out of poverty.

China will build multiple hemp cultivation bases in Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Gansu and Anhui provinces as well as the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia by 2020, a project that is expected to bring three million people out of poverty, according to a Shanghai Daily report citing an official from the People's Liberation Army's General Logistics Department.

Production at one of the first facilities involved in this plan went online yesterday in Menghai County in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in southern Yunnan. The hemp fiber processing factory, owned by China Hemp Industrial Holding Co Ltd, has an annual capacity of 2,000 tonnes.

In addition to being used to produce fibers for rope and clothing, hemp can also be used to make paper which is much less damaging to the environment than paper made from trees. Aside from causing deforestation, tree paper is bleached with toxic chlorine bleach. Hemp paper can be bleached with less environmentally harmful hydrogen peroxide.

Industrial hemp can also be used to produce fuel, biodegradable plastics, construction materials and health foods.

The government in Xishuangbanna now provides farmers with free hemp seeds plus technical training. According to the prefecture's party chief Jiang Pusheng, there are nearly 10,000 farmers growing hemp in the area, farmers who through hemp cultivation stand to double their annual income from 2,000 yuan (US$293) to 4,000 yuan.

Image: Baidu

In recent years much attention has been paid to the rising prices of oil and commodities, much of it driven by the increasingly voracious consumption of the Chinese economy as it continues down its path toward becoming the world's largest economy.

In March and April however, rice climbed to the front of global consciousness as major rice-producing countries including India, Vietnam, Brazil and Egypt announced that they would limit rice exports in order to ensure sufficient domestic supply. Over the past few months the price of benchmark variety Thai B-grade has tripled to around US$1,000 per ton.

The decrease in supply and increase in price for imported rice has also raised concerns in Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines, all of which are major rice importers. The fallout has not been limited to Asia – rising rice prices have led to some North American wholesale chains limiting rice purchases as shipments of rice from Asia to North America have decreased. The jump in price also sparked riots in Haiti on April 4 that left six dead.

With rice's value to the planet increasingly visible – it is the most important crop in Asia and is the second most-grown cereal grain in the world after maize (corn) – major rice exporters are considering new ways to leverage their critical role in global food production.

On Wednesday the prime minister of Thailand, Samak Sundaravej, floated the idea of creating a cartel of rice-producing countries that could operate similarly to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The proposed cartel would include Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

"We don't aspire to be like OPEC, but we hope to be just a group of five to help each other in trading rice on the world market," Bangkok-based newspaper The Nation quoted Samak as saying. Samak also told reporters that Myanmar leader General Thein Sein approved of the idea when he raised it at a meeting between the two leaders in Bangkok earlier this week. Thailand's foreign minister Noppadon Pattama said the cartel was likely to be formed during Samak's tenure as prime minister.

Successful organization of a Southeast Asian rice cartel, which is tentatively being called the Organization of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC), would have a major impact on the global rice market. Thailand is the world's biggest exporter of rice, sending around 10 million tons to international markets yearly. Vietnam – the world's second-largest rice exporter – exports roughly half that amount.

According to the Chinese government, the country's rice reserves are enough to last half a year at current consumption levels, yet fears of hoarding and further price rises in the short term are growing. Rice prices in south China have increased 10 percent in recent weeks despite frequent releases from China's state reserves to keep prices low.

Rice production is also facing a serious problem in the form of diminishing global water supplies. Conventional rice production requires large amounts of water – a fact not lost on increasingly thirsty China, which last year announced that it aims to expand its use of aerobic rice, a strain of rice that like wheat is capable of growing on dry soil. China hopes to increase its aerobic rice acreage to 30 percent of national rice acreage from its current level of one percent.

Should OREC's influence on global rice prices eventually parallel OPEC's influence on global oil prices, it is likely that the cartel will need to cultivate a friendly relationship with China, which controls the headwaters of the region's most important rivers including the Mekong and Salween rivers.

Top image: Wikipedia

Already a domestic mushroom powerhouse, Yunnan is sending more of its mushroom output overseas - particularly to Western Europe. In the first seven months of this year the province exported 1,791 tons of mushrooms, an increase of 15.2 percent over the same period last year.

The total value of Yunnan's mushroom exports from January through July exceeded US$10.8 million, up 3.8 percent year-on-year, according to a Xinhua report citing Yunnan customs officials. The officials said that sales of niugan jun (牛肝菌) to Italy, France and Germany were particularly strong.

It is currently mushroom season in Yunnan, and in addition to niugan jun, Kunming markets and restaurants are stocked with other popular mushrooms from around the province including the hearty songrong (松茸) aka matsutake or pine mushroom [pictured above], the fragrant jizong (鸡枞) and the meaty ganba jun (干巴菌).

When ordering mushrooms at a restaurant, make sure to confirm the price beforehand as these seasonal mushrooms can cost up to several times as much as other dishes. If you choose to buy mushrooms to cook yourself, it is recommended to have an experienced friend oversee the cleaning and cooking as some mushrooms contain small to significant levels of toxic substances.

Image: Teahorse.net