Worst drought in 116 years hits Australian wheat production
Image credit: tarosys
The worst drought in more than a century is affecting parts of Australia, causing severe grain shortage in what is usually an outstanding surplus producing country.
The condition resulted in a significant shipment of wheat from Canada, approved on May 9 and expected to arrive in the next 6 to 8 weeks, according to the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.
The import conditions require that the grain is sourced from areas assessed as presenting a low plant and animal biosecurity risk and impose strict movement, storage and processing controls within Australia.
This cargo will be processed at Manildra Group's Shoalhaven Starches plant in the state of New South Wales.
"Due to the worst drought in 116 years, high-protein wheat is in short supply which is critical to the Shoalhaven Starches wheat-processing plant," the company said.
The analyst from Australian Crop Forecaster James Maxwell estimated that the total weight of the shipment would be around 50 000 and 60 000 tones.
"The reason this announcement has garnered so much attention is that it just doesn't happen," Maxwell said.
The last such shipment was back in 2007.
Earlier reporting
Nothing on Watchers was published in the last 24 hours. These are older articles.
- In 1920, a man out hunting on a farm in Namibia sat down on a strange black rock, scratched it with his knife and saw metal shine underneath. It was Hoba, a 60-ton meteorite, the largest ever found, and there is no crater around it Epicenter
- On December 26, 2004, a 10-year-old British girl on a Phuket beach recognized the frothing sea from a recent geography lesson, and her warning helped clear the beach before the tsunami struck Epicenter
- A volcano in Tonga exploded so loudly in 2022 that people in Alaska, 6,000 miles away, were woken by the booms. Hawaii, at half that distance, heard nothing at all Epicenter
- In 2001, red rain fell on parts of Kerala, India, on and off for about two months. Scientists traced the color to algae spores, but one physicist argued the cells came from space. Epicenter
Quote: “The most severe drought in more than a century affects some parts of Australia, causing an acute shortage of grain in a country that is usually an outstanding country producing surplus.”
I am a working ecologist, head of a small group of environmental managers.
Restoring the water-temperature parameters of Australia is extremely difficult. Firstly, it is not possible to produce fresh water in Australia everywhere – it is necessary to irrigate the territories consistently. The first is the restoration of the Darling-Murray river basin. Then – the small and drying up rivers, and then empty territories. All these issues, and the distribution of rights and obligations of the parties, can be solved only in person. I am waiting for representatives of the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources at my place at the Khmelnitsky NPP.
Sincerely, environmental programs developer, Victor Rodin. Ukraine. Khmelnitsky NPP. Tel. Kiev Star: 961336344. Mail: [email protected], [email protected]
— — —
Цитата: «Самая сильная засуха за более чем столетие затрагивает некоторые районы Австралии, вызывая острую нехватку зерна в стране, которая обычно является выдающейся страной, производящей излишки».
Я – действующий эколог – руководитель небольшой группы экологических менеджеров.
Восстановить водно-температурные параметры Австралии – чрезвычайно сложно. Во-первых, производить пресную воду в Австралии можно не везде – придётся орошать территории последовательно. Первое – это восстановление бассейна рек Дарлинг-Муррей. Затем – мелкие и пересыхающие реки, и затем пустые территории. Все эти вопросы, и распределение прав и обязанностей сторон, можно решить только при личной встрече. Я жду представителей австралийского департамента сельского хозяйства и водных ресурсов у себя – на Хмельницкой АЭС.