China's key wheat growing province of Shandong is facing its worst drought in at least 40 years, putting further pressure on politically sensitive food prices that have been surging for months, reported Associated Press.

Drought has hit more than half of the land in the province normally used to grow wheat - about 5 million acres (2 million hectares) - and that number is rising, according to a notice posted Monday on the provincial water bureau's website.

Many areas have seen no precipitation in four months, and 872,263 acres (353,000 hectares) of spring wheat has already dried up or is beginning to fail, it said. More than 240,000 people and 107,000 head of livestock already have lost access to drinking water and are forced to rely on deliveries from fire trucks.

Unusually dry conditions have spread across much of China's northeastern bread basket, including the provinces of Henan, Shanxi, Hebei, Jiangsu and Anhui. The capital Beijing has yet to receive snow this winter, although water supplies have not been affected.