Mr Huang, from Longxingdong village in Lianzhou , about 230km north of Guangzhou, is by no means alone.

A prolonged drought - yet to be broken despite light rain early this week - now extends across much of Guangdong, but Leizhou in the west and Lianzhou in the northwest are the two worst-hit areas.

According to the China News Service, about 200,000 hectares of farmland across Guangdong is affected.

'For us farmers, nothing can be done without water,' said Mr Huang, who has been tilling the land since leaving school at the age of 16. 'You can't plough the land, even drought-resistant crops like sweet potatoes can't survive.

'When the rivers dry up, we have to carry water with a shoulder pole from half a kilometre away.'

The drought is not only destroying crops, it is also destroying communities. Almost all the young men in Lianzhou have left to look for work in industrial cities.

'For every family, one or two members have left for the cities as there is nothing for them to do without water,' Mr Huang said. 'You just can't make ends meet by relying on farming now.'

While the lack of rain may be a curse of nature, the plight faced by local farmers has been compounded by the rising costs of farming.

Mr Huang said grain prices were not keeping pace with the rising cost of inputs including fertiliser and pesticide.

'We can barely earn 400 yuan a year after deducting costs,' he said. 'It may be easy to earn 500 yuan if you have a job in city, but you need to farm eight to 10 mu of land just to earn that much here.'

Another farmer, Liang Changshu , 75, who lives in Liangjia village, said the drought had not only made farming much tougher, but also meant clean drinking water was in short supply.

'We have had no tap water since October,' said fellow villager Cheng Laixiu , 65.

According to state media reports, about half a million people in Guangdong now face shortages of drinking water. The lack of rain has seen water volumes in the province's three main rivers - the Beijiang, Xijiang and Dongjiang - fall steadily.

Farmers in Liangjia now take water from a pool in the village for daily use after virtually all the mountain streams dried up.

'The pool is for the fish farms and the pigsty is next to it,' a middle-aged woman said. 'Sometimes kids just urinate near the pool and the water is dirty. We loathe drinking the smelly water, but we have no choice.'

Villager Liang Jijin said they often found a layer of a white, powdery deposit on their cooking utensils after using the pool water for cooking.

'Someone said it was lime,' the 50-year-old said. 'It can be bad for our health and we are worried.'

Mr Huang, pointing to the denuded mountainsides around the village, says there is more to the drought than a spell of bad weather.

'The dry season has become longer every year. I don't know why but one thing I am certain is that there are fewer and fewer trees on the mountains,' he said with a deep sigh.

'When I was young, there used to be so many big trees up there. Now, all of them have been cut down.

'In my opinion, this must be why the climate has changed and we have no more rain.'

The drought has not only destroyed Mr Huang's crops, it has also shaken his faith in farming.

'I have been a farmer for more than 50 years and I have learned one thing - there is no prospect in being a farmer and you can hardly feed your family by being a farmer,' he said.

Asked if he also wanted to leave for the city, Mr Huang said: 'I never ask for much - a mediocre life is okay.

'All I hope for is three meals a day and that's all I want.'