Special teams drive post-disaster relief

China has mobilized emergency agricultural task forces across typhoon-stricken eastern provinces to rescue crop, livestock and fisheries output, while insurers fast-track compensation claims to offset severe farmer losses caused by unprecedented rainfall brought by Typhoon Dolphin.

The typhoon unleashed record downpours across eastern China, submerging large swaths of farmland, raising livestock disease risks and halting coastal fishing activities, according to local government and media reports.

Typhoon Dolphin made landfall in Zhejiang province on Sunday, unleashing the heaviest typhoon rainfall in the province since at least 1949, local meteorological data showed.

Collectively, the affected eastern regions of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, Anhui provinces and Shanghai are core national pillars for China's planting, fishery and animal husbandry sectors.

Featuring advanced greenhouse facilities and mature grain and vegetable planting bases, these areas secure stable domestic grain and horticultural supplies.

Their vast coastal waters and sophisticated marine aquaculture systems form the backbone of China's offshore fishery industry. Meanwhile, the region's standardized livestock breeding operations underpin steady domestic meat provision.

To drive post-disaster recovery, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs had dispatched six working groups and 11 professional technical teams to the worst-hit regions, the ministry said on Thursday.

Composed of agronomists, veterinarians and aquaculture experts, the teams conduct field-by-field damage assessments and offer on-site guidance for drainage, crop replanting, facility disinfection and resumption of fishing operations.

The ministry said it had deployed drainage and rescue gear, guided provinces to dredge 373,000 hectares of farmland ditches, pumped out standing water and repaired damaged facilities to ease waterlogging, while also promoting foliar sprays for autumn crops to strengthen their resilience and speed regrowth.

The ministry has released post-flood livestock epidemic prevention guidelines to avoid secondary outbreaks and coordinated East China Sea fishing suspensions with coastal provinces, arranging safety training for nearly 40,000 boat operators, it said.

The National Meteorological Centre said on Tuesday that the typhoon had dissipated over Hubei province, but warned residual circulation is still expected to unleash heavy rainfall across the major producing areas of wheat, corn and cotton south of the Yellow River and North China in the coming days.

Accelerated agricultural insurance payouts have complemented government relief efforts to ease farmers' financial burdens.

China's insurance industry had received nearly 130,000 claims related to Typhoon Dolphin as of 3 pm on Wednesday, with estimated losses of 1.75 billion yuan ($259.5 million), the National Financial Regulatory Administration said.

Claims were filed across six provincial-level regions — Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui and Henan — with payouts and prepayments totaling 80 million yuan as of the same deadline.

The regulator has directed insurers to expedite claim settlements, open green channels and make advance payments where appropriate, while coordinating with local governments on disaster relief efforts.

The typhoon is the latest in a string of extreme weather events to batter major farming belts as summer harvests get under way and the autumn grain season — which contributes about three-quarters of China's annual output — draws near.