Word: normally
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...among many. "Rice is basically buggered," says Brett Heffernan, of Australia's National Farmers' Federation. In a normal year, Australia's 2,000 rice farmers produce about 1.2 million metric tons of the grain. This year's harvest was a paltry 18,000 tons - the lowest yield since 1927, when the country's rice industry was four years old. "Frustration is the common feeling at the moment," says Gordon, president of the Ricegrowers' Association of Australia. "We think we're really good food producers. But at the moment we're not producing any food...
...Even in normal times, the Murray-Darling Basin, which covers parts of four states and the Australian Capital Territory, isn't water rich. On average, it receives a modest 250-300 mm of rain a year, and much of the terrain is semi-arid. Its farmers have mostly thrived until now because over 70% of the country's irrigation resources are concentrated there. But with the drought dragging on, the allocation of surface water to farmers last Southern spring - planting time for rice farmers - was zero...
...Brunt, who's on 120 hectares near the New South Wales town of Finley and has been rice farming for 32 years. "The tractor's throwing up clouds of dust." Les Gordon recalls the disenchantment among farmers in 1982 when state authorities limited farmers to 60% of their normal water allowance. Now, "I would kill for a 60% allocation," says Gordon, who still farms with his father, Henry. "Dad planted his first rice crop in 1949. No one around here has seen conditions like this before...
...normal year, Australia exports 85% of its rice production as branded product to some 70 markets through Asia, the Middle East, the South Pacific and other destinations. So it is that although Australian rice represents only 0.2% of world rice production, it accounts for more than 4% of the global rice trade - enough to feed 40 million people one meal a day for a year...
...Mutlieck was one resident of Sadr City heartened to see armored columns of Iraqi Army forces rolling deep into his neighborhood on Tuesday. "We hope the government is serious about ending all the armed groups so life could be back to normal," said Mutlieck. "The situation is very, very...