QIAOBEI, China — In this tiny hamlet in northern China’s wheat belt, Zheng Songxian scrapes out a living growing winter wheat on a vest-pocket plot, an eighth of a hectare carved out of a rocky hillside. One might think he would greet the chance this winter to till new land as cause for celebration. He does not. The new land he was offered normally lies under more than 6 meters, or 20 feet, of water, part of the Luhun Reservoir in northwestern Henan Province. But this winter, Luhun has lost most of its water to northern China’s worst drought in at least 50 years. And what was once lake bottom has become just another field of winter wheat, stunted for want of rain. Zheng, 50, stood in his field, which measures barely a third of an acre, on a recent winter day, a shrunken wheat plant freshly pulled from the earth in one hand. ‘I think I’m going to lose at least a third of my harvest this year,’ he said. ‘If we don’t get rain before May, I won’t be able to harvest anything.’ Northern China is dry in the best of times. But this […]