Photo taken on Sept. 7, 2011 shows a sprout grows hard in the field in Pingman Village of Tianlin County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. A total of 190,000 mu (about 12,667 hectares) of crops here have been affected by a serious drought, with 25,000 mu (about 1,667 hectares) totally fruitless. The drought has affected several counties as the average precipitation from July 1 to the end of August has fallen by 50 percent year on year to 228 millimeters, the least since 1951. [Xinhua]