Rain is expected to fall this week on arid farmland in China's major wheat producing province, which is suffering its worst drought in six decades.

The weather service of Shandong Province said Thursday that "sufficient" rainfall would start late Thursday in the province's southeast and expand to other areas in the next three days.

Medium to heavy rain and snow are expected in some parts of Shandong over the weekend, with a maximum precipitation reaching 35 millimeters.

Rainfall across Shandong since mid-September last year has been only 13 millimeters on average.

Winter wheat accounts for 95 percent of China's gross wheat output. Shandong is a key winter wheat producing base in north China. The government has been extending irrigation to prevent damage to the crop.

A provincial weather service spokesman described the coming rainfall as "sufficient" and said it would be "very helpful" to ease the drought.

The dry spell is hitting large areas of farmland in north China. The affected area of winter wheat in eight provinces, including Shandong, is estimated at 60,553 square kilometers, about 26 percent of which was affected by "severe drought," according to the Ministry of Agriculture.