Word: drought
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...could be a "real compensation for deforestation." Farmers are planting trees on their property not because they want to suck up carbon dioxide - at least, not yet. Rather, trees can add value to agriculture. Fruit and nut trees provide additional income or even subsistence food, especially in times of drought, since trees are generally hardier than crops. Trees also provide salable commodities like coffee, rubber, gum and timber. And even if a stand of trees doesn't produce anything worth selling or eating, it still creates shade, protects against erosion and preserves water quality...
...massive drought - accelerated by khat cultivation - and the resultant population displacement could have a devastating impact in one of the most fragile countries in the Middle East. A separatist insurgency in the south is threatening to break the country apart, while pirates from Somalia are menacing the coast. Al-Qaeda, meanwhile, has long seen the lawless tribal lands in the northern mountains as a potential sanctuary...
...Drought is no stranger to India - the monsoons, which are especially crucial for areas without irrigation, also failed in 2002 and 1987 - and the government is responding in the usual way, by expanding rural subsidies. In his Independence Day speech to the nation on Aug. 15, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to postpone the date for repayment of farmers' bank loans and to give breaks on interest payments for short term crop loans. This comes on top of last year's $14 billion farm loan waiver program, price supports for agricultural products and an ambitious jobs scheme, which guarantees...
...Even if it can't buy rain, there is still time for the government of India to rethink how it can start to prepare for the next drought. Sunita Narain of the Centre for the Study of the Environment in New Delhi advocates a new, national water policy to make farmers less vulnerable to the vagaries of the monsoon, encompassing more effective use of groundwater, better monitoring of weather patterns and water supply, implementing village water-security plans, and encouraging conservation and water recycling in the cities. In a recent editorial she wrote, "We must learn, fast, how to reinvigorate...
...other, the problems of drought-hit rural areas will eventually become those of India's metros. If things don't improve, the Ahmed brothers say, "We might not even be able to afford this land anymore." But they have a plan. They have started asking around about work as laborers on a construction site, and may soon make their way to the city...