Word: drought
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...India's drought is drying up consumer demand in rural areas, and the entire economy is feeling thirsty. It begins with people like Kalu Singh. A prosperous farmer in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Singh has built a tiny empire - a microcosm of the Indian economy - around him. He owns 144 acres of vegetable plots and paddy fields and last year earned almost Rs. 2.2 million (about $45,833). That's enough to employ more than 1,500 people and for him to live well, spending about $625 a month buying clothes, food and comforts for his family...
...Ethiopia remains caught in a deadly cycle of drought and famine, aid agencies warn that erratic rainfall and ever-rising food costs are compounding the problems carried over from last year's drought to leave 6.2 million people in need of food assistance, on top of the 7.5 million already getting aid from the government...
...Reports of rising numbers of nutrition-related deaths and illnesses in Ethiopia are coming out amid tense times for humanitarian organizations, who face various obstacles in their attempts to deal with the effects of the drought. Unlike in previous years, the current crisis is not getting much play in the media. Part of the reason could be that after last year's drought put Ethiopia in the headlines, the country's government - no fan of negative attention - decided this time to take matters of food relief into its own hands, pushing international NGOs to the sidelines. "Giving publicity...
...Ethiopia's rain-fed agriculture is "shockingly vulnerable" to small variations in the patterns of rainfall, says one Western diplomat, and the country has no chance to recover from the last drought before the next one hits. "The impact of last year works through this year," says Jolanda Hogenkamp, the World Food Program's Deputy Head of Programs in Ethiopia. "The picture we see now is more or less the same as last year. Largely the same numbers and same areas." (Read: "Famine: Hunger Stalks Ethiopia Once Again...
...rebels and members of the armed forces. There are also tribal conflicts, which are not connected to any ethnic group [in particular]; it is not, as portrayed, an "ethnic war." Most of the intra-tribal fighting in fact is between tribes of Arab origins over resources because years of drought that hit the area made the scarcity of resources one reason for conflict; between nomads and peasants; and between nomads themselves because grazing lands have become limited due to the decline in rainfall. Conflict, therefore, between youth that herd their livestock is likely. We maintain that there is a problem...