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...dearth of the highly prized game fish in Scottish rivers follows a decade-long decline in the total salmon catch of Scotland's sport and commercial fishermen. Between 1972 and 1976, the average annual haul was 1,571 metric tons (a metric ton is 2,205 lbs.), but in the five years ending in 1981, it fell to 1,184 metric tons. In Scotland, where laws concerning salmon fishing date from 1030, the decline is viewed as a national affront. Says Sir Andrew Gilchrist, former chairman of the Highlands and Islands Development Board: "The culmination of increasingly bad years...
...hosts surely needed the cheering up. America's 2.4 million farmers are struggling to survive the worst slump since the Depression, caught in a vise of rising costs and falling prices. Though they are expected to chalk up near record crops of wheat (73.8 million metric tons) and corn (208 million metric tons) this year, the silo-busting harvests will only push low prices even lower. Since 1975, as farm expenses have nearly doubled (from $75.9 billion to $141.5 billion), net farm income has fallen. Profits, which declined from $32.7 billion in 1979 to $22.9 billion last year...
...Farmers believe that the U.S. could easily sell Moscow as much as 23 million tons over the next year. The U.S.S.R. has just suffered its fourth bad harvest in a row; the U.S. Agriculture Department estimates that this year's Soviet crop will be a disappointing 170 million metric tons, 68 million tons below the goal. The department also predicts that the Soviets will be forced to import 46 million tons this year, at a cost of $6 billion...
Backers of the river reversals are convinced that the great investment-at least $40 billion in the early stages alone-would pay off handsomely. They predict grain production would be boosted by as much as 30 million to 60 million metric tons a year-equivalent to 18% to 35% of the U.S.S.R.'s current crop. They also point out that the northern waters would revitalize two major inland seas, the Caspian and the Aral, whose levels have been dropping rapidly because of irrigation needs...
...promising aid to the Caribbean economies, the Reagan Administration has dealt a blow to one of the region's key exports: sugar. Two weeks ago, the White House announced that it was imposing quotas on sugar imports. The countries of the Caribbean last year shipped 1.25 million metric tons of sugar...