At first glance, the reports appearing in the American media last summer sounded very much like news about drought-stricken villages in the Indian hinterland. Till, of course, you saw the dateline and carried on reading in utter disbelief about desperate farmers and rural residents praying for rain in the United Sates of America. Since presidential help on the expected scale was not forthcoming, it was perhaps inevitable that god was called upon to do the needful. The Washington Post reported that President George Bush was unwilling to spare more finances for drought relief than had already been set aside in the USD 180 billion farm bill that he had signed earlier in May. The president, however, emphasised his commitment to helping farmers under existing programmes, including the agriculture department's decision to make USD 150 million worth of surplus milk – "spoilt milk" as the Democrats called it – available for use as animal feed in four drought-stricken states.
A drought of this magnitude is unprecedented in the recent history of the US. Crops have withered and fodder has become scarce, hence the need to feed milk to livestock. There is a scramble for new water sources even as urban residents have been asked to stop watering lawns and washing cars. Ranchers have sold off herds rather than let them starve for lack of pasture on their heat-baked fields. "I have never seen it like this and I'm 60 years old", said Richard Taylor, who owns 37,000 acres in Texas and New Mexico but had to sell off much of his cattle herd.
Serious hydrological problems have developed with wells, reservoirs and streams going dry and groundwater depleting drastically. Wildfires have broken out in many areas, scorching an estimated 4.6 million acres, twice the average acreage burnt in the previous decade. "It is pretty dire", said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Centre. From southern California to South Carolina and from Montana to New Mexico, there have been reports of extraordinary levels of damage. Not since the great "dust bowl" days of the 1930s, so poignantly described in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, have US farriers experienced so extensive a crisis of production. Wheat output is expected to fall to its lowest level in close to 30 years. In July, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculated that 49 percent of the US contiguous landmass was suffering from 'moderate to severe' drought conditions. 'Exceptional drought' conditions, the most acute form of all, prevailed in 13 states, including New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
By strange coincidence, India too was reeling this year under its worst drought in a long time, which ravaged 12 of 29 states. Such was the level of crop damage that rice production this year is expected to touch an all-time low. Unlike the American story, however, the Indian one is not exceptional. Drought is just one of the many seasons of the Subcontinent and crop failure is inscribed into the lifecycle of the farmer. But the American story comes as a rude shock to those who have been taught at universities to greatly appreciate the US farm model and its unmatched capacity for success. One year of drought has been sufficient to demonstrate its vulnerabilities. The vaunted drought-proofing of American agriculture that we have heard so much of is obviously not quite what it is made out to be.