Namibia has approved the killing of hundreds of animals, including elephants, to feed people affected by the severe drought, according to a notice from the southern African nation’s government. Last month, the United Nations reported that almost half of Namibia’s population suffered from acute food insecurity because of a widely reported food crisis in the country.

In response to this, Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism announced on Monday that meat from the 723 animals to be culled will be distributed as part of a drought relief program. The measure seeks to alleviate the growing hunger crisis in the country.

Also Read | Nearly 70 Million Suffering From Drought In Southern Africa: Report

“The Ministry will contribute 723 animals, comprising 30 hippos, 60 buffalos, 50 impalas, 100 blue wilderbeasts, 300 zebras, 83 elephants, and 100 elands. The animals are sourced from national parks and communal areas with sustainable game numbers,” the ministry said in a press release.

“The culling is being conducted by professional hunters and safari outfitters contracted by the Ministry and conservancies in specific areas. To date, 157 animals comprising different species were hunted in Mangetti. National Park, 20 in Mahango, 70 in Kwando, 6 in Bufallo, and 9 in Mudumo, delivering 56875 kilogrammes of meat.”

Meanwhile, about 68 million people in Southern Africa are suffering the effects of an El Nino-induced drought, which has wiped out crops across the region, the regional bloc SADC said on Saturday. The drought, which started in early 2024, has hit crop and livestock production, causing food shortages and damaging the wider economies. Heads of state from the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) were meeting in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, to discuss regional issues, including food security.

It is Southern Africa’s worst drought in years, owing to a combination of naturally occurring El Nino-when an abnormal warming of the waters in the eastern Pacific changes world weather patterns-and higher average temperatures produced by greenhouse gas emissions.

Countries including Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi have already declared the hunger crisis a state of disaster, while Lesotho and Namibia have called for humanitarian support.

Image for representation purpose only.
| Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak

The Minimum Support rices (MSPs) for both kharif and rabi seasons 2023-24 ensured a minimum return of 50% over the cost of production for all crops, said the Reserve Bank’s Annual Report released on May 30.

The overall public stock of foodgrains as on March 31, 2024 stood at 2.9 times the total quarterly buffer norm, the report said.

On November 29, 2023, the government extended the scheme of free distribution of foodgrains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for five more years, effective from January 1, 2024.

The report, which is a statutory report of  Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) central board of directors, noted that the agriculture and allied activities faced headwinds from the uneven and deficient South-West Monsoon (SWM) rainfall coinciding with strengthening El Nino conditions.

The overall SWM rainfall in 2023 (June-September) was 6% below Long Period Average (LPA) at the all-India level.

As per the second advance estimates, the production of kharif and rabi foodgrains in 2023-24 was 1.3% lower than the final estimates of the previous year.

Also read: Guaranteed MSP is an ethical imperative

The output of millets could benefit from productivity gains, the report said.

MSPs in 2023-24 were increased in the range of 5.3-10.4% for the kharif crops and 2.0-7.1% for the rabi crops.

Moong witnessed the maximum MSP increase among kharif crops, while the increase was the highest for lentils (masur) and wheat among rabi crops.

A La Nina would have significant consequences for global agriculture because it typically brings wetter weather to eastern Australia and southeast Asia and drier conditions to the Americas.
| Photo Credit: Ritu Raj Konwar/The Hindu

There are early signs that a La Nina weather event may form in the Pacific Ocean later this year, Australia’s weather bureau said on Tuesday.

A La Nina would have significant consequences for global agriculture because it typically brings wetter weather to eastern Australia and southeast Asia and drier conditions to the Americas.

The bureau said it had declared a “La Nina Watch”.

“When La Nina Watch criteria have been met in the past, a La Nina event has subsequently developed around 50% of the time,” it said.

Also Read | El Niño, La Niña and changing weather patterns 

La Nina events result from cooler sea surface temperatures in the Pacific. Warmer sea surface temperatures can cause an opposite weather phenomenon called El Nino, which occurred last year and lasted into early 2024.

“Sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific have been steadily cooling since December 2023,” the bureau said.

“The Bureau’s modelling suggests that ENSO will likely remain neutral until at least July 2024,” it said, using the formal name, the El Niño Southern Oscillation, that describes the switch between the two phases.

Japan’s weather bureau has said there is a 90% chance that the El Nino phenomenon will dissipate by the end of May.

Other forecasters have also heralded a La Nina later this year. Last week, Japan’s weather bureau said there was a 60% chance it would occur by November, and a U.S. government forecaster said there was a 69% chance that it would develop during July-September.

An area is uncovered by the lowering of the water level from the Magdalena river, the longest and most important river in Colombia, due to the lack of rain, in the city of Honda, January 14, 2016. While flooding and intense rain wreak havoc on several countries in Latin America, El Nino brings other harmful effects to Colombia with severe drought.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Japan’s weather bureau said on Friday there was a 90% chance that the El Nino phenomenon will dissipate by the end of May, while there was a 60% chance of the La Nina phenomenon occurring in the months up until November.

El Nino is a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific. La Nina is characterised by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific region and is linked to floods and drought.

Watch | Earth Day: wake-up call on climate change

In this episode, we will be discussing Earth Day, which The Hindu covered with thematic articles on April 22.

We look at multiple dimensions of climate change, beginning with the most recent Supreme Court ruling on climate change in terms of the rights of us citizens of India to have protection from the deleterious impact of climate change.

We look at heatwave projections for the entire Asia region in terms of what impact it could have on livelihoods, employment etc. We will also look at how algorithms can be used to project future droughts and floods across the region. And finally, we touch on the critical issue of water management and why it matters in the context of water-food-land nexus which together has an enormous impact on the economy.

We are joined by Jacob Koshy, the Deputy Science Editor at The Hindu.

Host: Narayan Lakshman

Guest: Jacob Koshy

Production: Richard Kujur

Pea plants are damaged by drought, due to the El Nino weather phenomenon in Madrid municipality near Bogota, Colombia, January 17, 2016.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Latin American nations must be on high alert as the weather phenomenon known as El Nino rapidly switches over to La Nina, experts said on Thursday, leaving populations and crops little time to recover.

El Nino and its abundant rains could soon turn into droughts caused by La Nina as well as an intense hurricane season across South America, experts said at a panel organized by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The full weather pattern involving El Nino, La Nina and a neutral phase typically lasts between two to seven years. But experts said that the transition period from El Nino to La Nina is getting shorter.

“We just saw it happen,” said Yolanda Gonzalez, director of the International Research Center for the El Nino Phenomenon. “A year ago we came out of a Nina, and in March there were already signs of a Nino.”

“Now in March, April there are signs of a Nina,” she added. “We haven’t been able to recover from the impact.”

In South America, the weather patterns can hit key crops such as wheat and corn, denting commodity-dependent economies.

The phenomenon is not caused by climate change, FAO’s technical team told Reuters, but experts have seen that the effects of the weather pattern, such as rainfall, heat waves and drought, have become more extreme.

The rapid transitions between El Nino and La Nina could also be correlated with climate change, FAO said, though scientists have yet to establish definitive causation.

“These abrupt changes, and the fact that these cycles are now almost overlapping, ultimately decreases the ability to adapt to the changes,” said Marion Khamis, FAO’s regional risk management specialist. “This implies a huge challenge.”

Telangana’s cumulative rainfall for October has been a mere 6.5 mm against the normal rainfall of 89.2 mm with a deviation of -93%, which is the lowest monthly rainfall recorded in 58 years. The earlier lowest rainfall of 0.9 mm was recorded way back in October 1965 and 7.2 mm in October 1967, respectively.

Meteorologists at the Telangana State Development Planning Society (TSDPS) have informed that while the global ‘El Nino’ (Pacific Ocean warming that affects the Indian monsoon) is the most likely phenomenon because no other activity has been witnessed, the suppressed Easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal could have led to the weak rainfall during the month.

“There were a couple of low-pressure cyclones that formed in the Bay of Bengal but one prominent one went off towards Bangladesh, hence there was no rainfall. There won’t be much rainfall in November and December also,” said TSDPS weather forecast consultant Y.V. Rama Rao on Wednesday.

During the current period from October to December, the northeast monsoon season is supposed to be receiving about 11.3 cm rain or about 12% of the total annual rainfall of 91.9 cm, a majority of which is to be received during the Southwest monsoon from June to September.

The rainfall deficit takes overall rainfall received since June to October to 86.8 cm as against the normal of 82.8 cm with a deviation of 5%. Within the GHMC limits, the overall rainfall has been 77.6 cm as against the normal of 72.4 cm or a deviation of 7 %.

The climatology for November is about 2 cm rainfall, with the highest rainfall ever recorded being 24.2 cm at Burgampadu (Bhadradri-Kothagudem) on November 3, 2012. The average minimum temperature is 19.2 degrees C and the lowest minimum temperature is 7 degree C recorded at Sirpur in Kumurum-Bheem district on November 27, 2017.

The weather consultant also stated that the current cloudy sky with warm day temperatures is also because of the Easterly winds strengthening, but by the middle of this month the temperatures could see a downward trend by a couple of degrees. “We can notice the signs of winter in a couple of weeks, where we can expect the night temperature to fall, though the season will officially set in December,” he added.

New Delhi:

Above-normal minimum temperatures are expected in most parts of India in November, barring some areas in the northwest and west-central regions, amid strengthening El Nino conditions, the IMD said on Tuesday.

At a press conference in New Delhi, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said rainfall over the country as a whole in November is most likely to be normal – 77-123 per cent of the long-period average.

Above-normal rainfall is likely over some areas of the southernmost parts of peninsular India, most parts of northwest India, and many parts of east-central, east and northeast India, he said.

EI Nino conditions are prevailing over the Equatorial Pacific Ocean and positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) conditions are prevailing over the Indian Ocean. The latest global forecasts indicate that the El Nino conditions are likely to continue during the season and positive IOD conditions are likely to weaken during the coming months, the IMD said.

Mr Mohapatra, however, said models suggest that El Nino conditions are unlikely to continue into the next monsoon season.

El Nino conditions — the warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean near South America — are associated with weaker monsoon winds and drier conditions in India.

Indian Ocean Dipole is defined as the difference in the sea surface temperatures between the western parts of the Indian Ocean near Africa and the eastern parts of the ocean near Indonesia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

H.J.M Seneviratne cuts yellow paddy stems that dried following drought, at his paddy field in Anamaduwa, Sri Lanka.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

H.J.M Seneviratne (63) slices through yellowed paddy stems dried out by a drought that has destroyed more than 95% of his crop and is threatening crisis-hit Sri Lanka’s summer rice harvest.

The island’s economy was crushed last year by its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades, caused by a severe shortage of foreign exchange reserves that triggered widespread unrest and ousted its former President.

Helped by a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Sri Lanka has slowly stabilised its economy since March, rebuilding its decimated reserves, moderating inflation and strengthening its currency.

But even before the country’s agriculture sector could recover from sky-rocketing prices of inputs from fertiliser to power, the rains failed.

“I’ve been a farmer for forty years but I’ve never experienced a harder time than this,” Seneviratne said, standing in the middle of a dusty field near Anamaduwa, a town in north western Sri Lanka, clutching a fistful of straw-like paddy stems with hollow rice kernels. “We haven’t had enough rain since May. The harvest is so bad we don’t even have seed paddy for the next season.”

The southwest monsoon that farmers rely on for the Yala or summer harvest was scanty this year because of the El Nino weather pattern and the weather department estimates there will be no rains until October.

Typically, Seneviratne’s four acres yield about 4.5-6 tonnes of paddy for the summer harvest but this time he predicts he will get only about 150 kg. All but one of the eight water tanks, large ponds in which rainwater is collected for irrigation, in the area have dried out, destroying about 200 acres of paddy.

The paddy loss could be as much as 75,000 acres, according to Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera while other experts say full losses could be even higher as estimates are yet to be completed. Sri Lanka planted 1.3 million acres for the summer harvest, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

“We have lost at least 80,000 metric tonnes of paddy as per the latest data and it could be more,” said Buddhi Marambe, a professor of crop science at Sri Lanka’s Peradeniya University. Last year, when the crop was decimated by a lack of fertilizer because of the economic crisis, the season produced 1.5 million tonnes of paddy.

The drought could reverse a recent trend of falling food prices, which dipped an annual 2.5% in July after rising 94% year-on-year last September.

Sri Lanka’s central bank warned last week that the dry weather coupled with higher global oil and commodity prices could also “weigh on expected growth in the near term,” as the island struggles to limit economic contraction to 2% this year after shrinking 7.8% in 2022.

Sri Lanka’s northern neighbour India is also expected to have the driest August in more than a century prompting it to restrict exports of certain categories of rice. Sri Lanka has previously imported rice from India to bridge production shortfalls.

Sri Lanka has so far ruled out rice imports this year, a statement from the President’s office said, as regions that have escaped the drought have produced higher yields.

Prices of rice have remained largely unchanged at retail, edging up about 10 Sri Lankan rupees (about 3 U.S. cents) to 220 rupees per kg from last month. So far, rice stocks have staved off any impact but prices could tick up in coming months with a scanty harvest.

Experts say they are worried that if Sri Lanka doesn’t receive the rains it needs next March because of the continuing El Nino, the country will be left with scant reserve stocks and will have to resort to large-scale, expensive imports.

El Nino, a warming of water surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, is linked to extreme weather conditions from tropical cyclones to heavy rainfall to severe droughts.

During the last El Nino in 2016/17, Sri Lanka suffered its worst drought in 40 years and rice output fell by nearly 50% year-on-year to 2.4 million metric tonnes over both its harvests.

Rice is the staple food of the country’s 22 million people and its biggest crop. According to government data, two million people in the country are rice farmers out of 8.1 million people engaged in fishing and agriculture in the largely rural economy.

To limit the El Nino impact, Buddhi Marambe says farmers will have to plant early during the Maha paddy season that starts in October as rains next March and mid-year are uncertain.

“If rains fail in March it will impact our main paddy season and we could have a very, very dry second season as well in the middle of 2024.”

The drought has also wiped out the small chilli, peanut and banana plants Seneviratne’s wife, W.M. Makamma, 62 grows to feed her family. “Before the crisis we used to cook for all three meals but now it’s only two,” she said. “We’ve stopped buying eggs, chicken or fresh fish. Lunch is a cup of black tea. I feel like we have fallen completely and its very hard to get back up.” ($1 = 323.5000 Sri Lankan rupees)