Australian Drought

If you’re a keen buyer of Kellog’s cereal, or a common patron at Baker’s Delight, you will have noticed that prices have been increasing. The drought is to blame for this.

Currently Australia is experiencing record low rainfall levels which are leaving Australian farmers all around the country with wilted crops and very little money. But this information is not new. This drought has been around for 7 years in some areas of the country, but it’s only recently that most Australians are starting to notice as it’s come to impact on their wallet. Fewer crops have been growing because of the lack of rain, which means that what has grown has increased in value, making them more expensive to buy. For companies like Kellog’s and Baker’s Delight, they have increased their retail prices to compensate for higher ingredient prices.

This is the worst drought that Australia has experienced ever. Scientists cannot definitively say climate change is responsible for the drought, but they can say that increased heat levels have worsened the effects of the recent drought. Unfortunately for Australian farmers, this means we’re facing a double whammy: record low rainfall levels AND record high heat levels.

Below is a picture of rainfall levels in Australia.

As you can see, most of the country is experiencing a severe deficiency in rain levels. In Queensland, two thirds of the state has officially been declared in drought, with some areas of the state not getting any rain for several months at a time. In New South Wales, 98.4% is officially in drought. While Victoria has escaped the worst of the drought so far, if dry weather continues, a drought will be declared and some Victorian towns could be under water restrictions.

One of the most damaging results of the current drought has been an increase in bushfires. Australia has always been prone to bushfires in summer. However, with the dramatic drop in rainfall levels and the escalation of heat levels, the likelihood of bushfires during all seasons has significantly increased. All over the country acres of trees are burning, homes are being destroyed and Australians are dying. Scientists have developed a clear link between climate change and bushfires. While Australian wildlife is equipped to deal with, and even benefit from occasional bushfires, the frequent occurrence of them onset by the drought is in no way beneficial. And our native flora is not designed to prevent the spread of bushfires either. Some Australian natives, like eucalyptus trees, actually promote the spread of bushfires with their flammable sap.

While on average there is less rainfall and hotter weather across Australia, there have been some inconsistent weather patterns. If you refer to the above graph, you can see that some areas are actually experiencing more cool season rainfall than others. However this increase in rainfall does not provide much desperately needed reprieve for farmers since these areas are by far in the minority. There are some areas which are experiencing more warm weather rainfall, but again, this is no comfort for farmers since the heat evaporates much of this precious water.

To assist some farmers to battle the drought, the Australian Government is subsidising the water supply in areas such as Adelaide. In these areas, farmers are being given water that has been desalinated - turned from sea water to freshwater. It’s an expensive process, costing $600-$900 per megalitre (1000 litres) to produce for only 6000 farmers. This has prompted the question: is this effort worth it? The desalination process is a long and arduous one, so many people are wondering if it is worth giving the end product away to farmers.

​One possible alternative to supplying farmers with desalinated water is drought proof crops. Australian scientists are now looking for common genes between different types of water efficient plants so that they can breed these genes into ordinary food crops. While initial research has found that water efficient plants are quite different to those we use for food, preventing easy breeding, the research has yielded one interesting discovery: scientists have found that if the crops sense an emergency (such as lack of water) early enough in the growing stages, they will automatically adjust to conserve water. This breakthrough study might be the answer we need to our current crop failure.