The Struggle of Farming a Land Where 'Normal' Has Lost Its Meaning

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/03/29/29climatewire-the-struggle-of-farming-a-land-where-normal-89992.html

March 29, 2010

The Struggle of Farming a Land Where 'Normal' Has Lost Its Meaning

By JESSICA LEBER of ClimateWire

SAKAI, Kenya -- No one complained that the rains were late when they watered the parched hills and muddied the roads here in December. Normally, they would have begun weeks earlier.

Villagers were grateful the rain had come at all.

"God is great. After these two seasons of the worst drought, now there is something in the fields," proclaimed Daniel Muthembwa, 76, an elder in this small farming community, a three-hour drive on winding roads from Nairobi. Around him, cornstalks dotted the green slopes and promised relief from the worst dry spell he could remember. Never had two seasons' crops and three years of rains failed so completely, he said.

"Normal" has little meaning in Sakai today. Kenya is struggling to emerge from a drought that put 4 million on food aid last year and saw at least 10 million facing starvation, the highest levels in two decades, according to one report. And while dry spells are old hat in a nation dominated by an arid and semiarid climate, today rising global temperatures are ending what little predictability farmers could count on in the past.

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[Dead_Parrot]

1. From just the title...

...you can't tell if this refers to Australia, the Midwest, the Central Valley, SE Asia, or Africa.
:(

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Ain't it the truth?

I had the same reaction.

[XemaSab]

3. Seriesly

:(