IT’S not just Africa that’s facing hardship. India is in the midst of its worst drought for more than a decade. The monsoon rains have failed, dashing hopes of a good harvest this summer as grain, pulse, oilseed and coarse cereal crops wither and die around the country.
Some 70 per cent of India’s one billion people are dependent on agriculture and the crops rely heavily on the four-month monsoon lasting from June to September. But as yet, the rains have failed across south, central, north and north-west India, the country’s agriculture minister Ajit Singh has confirmed. River and reservoir waters are receding, and sowing has…
