For thousands of years, the Chinese flooded their land to grow crops, but the flow has now reduced to a trickle -- or a drip.

In Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, cotton fields stretch to the horizon. Among them are Guo Ying's 7.3 hectares. Surprisingly, aqueducts and water pipelines are not to be found in her fields.

Guo said she used drip irrigation under plastic film technology. When water is needed, she turns on a control switch, and water drops permeate into the roots of crops slowly.

Guo's fields have been equipped with this technology for more than four years. "It helps me save a lot of water and manpower." She said 100 cubic meters of water can be saved for each one-fifteenth of a hectare on average, about one-third of the previous irrigation volume.

Guo works with Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Head of the water-saving irrigation office of the Corps Hu Weidong said the drip irrigation technology has been widely extended since 2000. Now more than 400,000 hectares of farmland are equipped with this technology, saving more than 600 million cubic meters of water a year.

Xinjiang's innovations are an example for the rest of the country as water becomes a more precious resource. According to the Ministry of Water Resources, with six percent of the world's total freshwater resources, China ranks sixth in the world after Brazil, Russia, Canada, the United States and Indonesia.

Per capita, however, its water resources are only a quarter of the world's average, ranking 121st in 153 countries.

China's farms account for more than two-thirds of the country's total water consumption volume, mostly for irrigation. However, 55 percent of total irrigation water is wasted, almost twice that of some developed countries.

If China can reach the standards of developed countries, 60 to 80 billion cubic meters of water - 12 to 16 percent of the total agricultural water consumption - can be saved per year.

Water saving, especially in agriculture, is on the agenda of the national leaders. Premier Wen Jiabao referred to it as one of the key measures to build a resource-saving society.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2007)