China declares emergency as drought bites

China has declared an emergency over a drought which could damage the important wheat crop, threatening further hardship for farmers amid slumping economic growth. The dry winter gripping parts of central and northern China sent Zhengzhou wheat futures up five per cent last week but physical prices have not moved, with most investors confident the

Heavy rain threatens Australia’s wheat crop quality

Australia’s wheat growers, reeling from years of drought, now face a new problem, with heavy rainfall provoking concern about the quality of the 2008-09 crop. The 2008-09 wheat harvest now underway has been disrupted by downpours in some key crop-growing regions in eastern parts of the country, including the northwest of New South Wales state


Who minds the Red’s flow in drought years?

Recent rains here in the Red River Basin have had many of us worrying about getting crops off the fields, and certainly not about drought. But history in the basin promises us that drought, to some degree or another, will indeed be part of our experience here. Are we prepared for it? According to a