The on-going dought in Australia's main food growing region in the Murray-Darling river system has hit crops hard and is showing no signs of easing.  The Murray-Darling region accounts for 41% of Australia's agriculture and provides a huge amount of food exports to Asia and the Middle East.  The worst impact has been on irrigated crops such as rice (remember the sudden increase in the price of rice as a result of the difficulties in this region last season?) and fruit.  Average rains in July kept alive hopes of a good wheat harvest, much-needed after a very low wheat harvest the last two years.

The Reuters article, as reported on the Environmental News Network, notes that 80% of eucalyptus trees are already dead or stressed in a region as large as France and Germany combined.

"It seems to me from what we've seen to date, there's no indication that it's going to end in the immediate future," said Wendy Craik, chief executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.  "Slowly warming temperatures are exacerbating the long dry, with climate scientists warning that every rise of 1.0C reducing river inflows by 15 percent in what is already the world's driest inhabited continent."