Drought puts Australia’s food bowl at risk: PM

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia’s once-in-a-century drought has tightened its grip on the country’s major food growing zone and could kill off the region’s orchards and vineyards, Prime Minister John Howard said Friday.

In his weekly radio address, Howard said that the continued lack of rain meant permanent plantings, such as fruit trees and grape vines, were dying.


“We are dealing with a genuine crisis,” he said of the extreme water shortage in the Murray-Darling Basin.

“Irrigation allocations are still at either zero or extremely low levels, inflows into storages are at record lows and there is significantly less water stored today compared to the same time last year.

AFP