Drought hurts Australian wheat crop, contributes to world food ...

Tag : wool hat
Drought hurts Australian wheat crop, contributes to world foodcrisis

TANALEE SMITH
Released : Saturday, July 12, 2008 4:46 AM
POOCHERA, Australia, Glen Phillips kneels down, scoops up a handfulof dirt and squashes it in his fist to test whether the soil inthis dry patch of the Australian Outback is ready to take a crop ofwheat.
``It should clump together when you squeeze,' says Phillips, whosefamily has lived off the land on the edge of the Great AustralianBight since 1949. ``That's how you know it's good to plant, it'smoist enough to hold the roots.'
He opens his hand and the earth sifts dustily between his fingers.Phillips looks up, lifts his hat slightly and squints into an emptyblue sky with no sign of rain.
``We'll plant anyway,' he says. ``We don't have a choice.'
One of Australia's worst droughts on record is hurting wheatfarming just as the world needs it most. Australia is usually theworld's third or fourth-largest exporter of wheat. But exportsdropped 46 per cent from 2005 to 2006, then fell 24 per cent lastyear.
Most of its exports go to the Middle East and Southeast Asia tomake bread and cereals, but the fall in supply has led to a spikein prices. A tonne of Australian wheat now costs $367, comparedwith $258 in early 2007, an increase poor countries can ill afford.
``When they pay high prices, they pass on an increase to theirpoorest people, who can no longer afford it,' says KunhambooKannan, director of agriculture, environment and natural resourcesat the Asian Development Bank. ``Just look at Egypt.' Riots overrising bread prices and shortages have led to at least 10 deaths inEgypt this year.
Relief may be on the way. Wheat sowing rose by 13 per cent thisyear, according to the Australian Bureau of Agriculture andResearch Economics, due to rainfall in the eastern part of thewheat belt and dry-planting elsewhere. And, if all goes well, the2008 wheat harvest could be close to normal at 23.7 million tonnes,compared with 13 million last year.
But it all depends on whether the rain comes, and experts say itwill be months before they know how the current crop of wheat willfare. In any case, stocks are low after several years of drought ina row.
Poochera is one of dozens of one-pub towns on the Eyre Peninsulawhere grain silos are the tallest buildings and there are justenough stores to supply the surrounding farms. Another year withoutrain would be the third in a row, and this May was the country'sdriest on record.
The peninsula, a giant wedge of land jutting into the ocean offsouthern Australia, forms part of a narrow crescent known as thewheat belt that includes some of Australia's most arable land. Itis also among the hardest hit by the drought.
The drought has made it harder to grow everything from wheat torice to corn.
Phillips says good wheat crops can grow with next to no rain. Theproblem is, he's been getting less than that.
In 2006, after promising autumn downpours, the rain stopped inwinter and Phillips watched his crop die. The same thing happenedlast year, although he managed to scrounge about one-third of whatthe land produces in a good year.
In two years, he estimates, the drought has cost him more than halfa million dollars. This season he had to take out a loan for thefirst time to cover the costs of planting and feeding hislivestock.
Elsewhere in Australia, recent rains have led to hope the droughtis easing, but the relief is patchy and it will take time torestore former production levels. According to Australia's Bureauof Meteorology, most of the country received below average or``very much below average' rainfall from March 1 to May 31, thesowing months.
In the Eyre Peninsula, about 644 kilometres west of the SouthAustralian state capital of Adelaide, some farmers have chosen toskip the entire winter wheat-growing season rather than gamble onloose, dry subsoil and the merest chance of rain. The cost ofplanting, seed, fertilizer, weedkillers, is about $150 a hectare,not counting wages.
Here, in the sprawling Outback properties, where land is abundantand water scarce, many farmers own sheep and cattle as well ascrops to spread their risk. It's not quite a hand-to-mouthexistence, but it's getting close.
Phillips, 55, took over this property 34 years ago from his father.He farms wheat and barley and raises sheep and cattle with hisgrown sons, Darcy and Ashley.
His family has not earned wages since 2006. The farm pays just theexpenses of running the property and the house. His wife, Kathy,keeps an expansive vegetable garden that feeds the family all yearround, and they slaughter ducks, lambs and cows to eat.
Anything else is a luxury until they can earn from their cropsagain.
For the past two years, livestock carried them through. Wool fromthe sheep brought high prices, and the first year they raised lamband calves to near maturity before selling them for a good price.
But last year they were forced into an early and cheap sell-off of2,500 lambs and more than 50 young calves to keep afloat.
With no new income, the family has already paid more than $11,000for cattle feed this year. Expenses such as weedkiller and dieselfuel costs are soaring. Fertilizer is up 30 per cent.
The family is gambling on a successful crop.
``If you don't put it in the ground, you don't have a chance,'Darcy Phillips says.
They are dry-planting 1,820 hectares of wheat and more than 600hectares of barley and praying for enough moisture in the comingweeks to ``shoot the grain,' or let the roots take hold in thesoil. They will then hold their breath until spring, when the cropswill need even more rain to grow to maturity ahead of alate-November harvest.
If not, the family faces a bleak choice. The last two years, Darcyleft the farm before spring to work on a ranching station. He mighthave to take a longer-term and higher-paying job at the gold mines,as many of his generation are already doing.
Ashley, who has a wife and toddler at home, will have to search forwork closer to home. The fields will likely lie fallow.
The stresses are common in Poochera and throughout the region. Thelocal school has shrunk from 170 students a decade ago to just 90,livestock agents have left, businesses have shut down and theclosest doctor is now more than 80 kilometres away.
``As every drought goes on . . . it's just another nail in thecoffin to a small country town out here,' Darcy Phillips says.
His father nods and contemplates adding the family to the outwardprocession. ``Even if this year is an average year I reckon therewill be a lot of people sell out or get out, and we might be one ofthem,' Phillips says. ``It's just getting too hard.'
Copyright 2008 The Canadian Press
Provider:
Canadian Press / Canadian Press (delayed)
Keywords:
Agriculture , Food & Beverage , Cereals , Breads & Grains , Asia Pacific Agriculture , Food & Beverage , Asia Pacific Business News , Asia Pacific News , Business News , Asia Pacific Agriculture , Agriculture , Food & Beverage Production , Hay & Forage , Top World News , Australasia , Islands , Oceania , Grains , Australia , MSNBC Business Video News , Agricultural Crops , Livestock , Wall Street Corporate Reporter News , Wheat Farming