Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
as undernourishment can be pinpointed and reported
to a central drought committee. This committee, with
access to government channels, relays information
about supplies back to local committees. The govern-
ment firmly believes that the loss of rural income
during drought, and its attendant unemployment,
exacerbates the shortage of food. In the 1986 drought,
the government temporarily employed over 70 000
people in rural areas, replacing one-half of lost incomes.
These programs were not in the form of food-for-work
but operated strictly on a cash-for-work basis. Projects,
selected by local committees, were usually drought-
mitigating. In addition, the drought program offered
free seed, grants for land cultivation, subsidies for oxen
hire, and mechanisms for selling drought-weakened
animals at above market prices. Government-trained
agricultural officers made efforts to enthuse the rural
community, to provide the expertise to maintain
farmers on the land during the drought, and to make
certain that maximizing the farmers' potential did not
result in degradation of available arable land. The
emphasis of this program is on keeping the rural
population on the land, and keeping them self-reliant
at existing living standards. In the 1980s, two factors
jeopardized the program: growing national apathy
and a 3.9 per cent annual growth rate in population.
Unfortunately, all these efforts took place before the
outbreak of AIDS in Africa. At present, the greatest risk
to drought mitigation in Botswana is the breakdown in
sophisticated government-sponsored programs due to
the death of talented civil servants as the result of this
twentieth century scourge.
schemes. This inability to perceive the farmer's plight
was one of the reasons Malcolm Fraser's Liberal-
Country Party coalition lost power in the March 1983
federal election. Response to drought in Australia,
thus, falls into two distinct categories. The first line of
defence occurs with the individual farmer's response,
as discussed above. Second, when the farmer fails to
profitably manage a property, then the state and
federal governments attempt to mitigate a drought's
worst effects and ensure that quick economic recovery
is possible when the drought breaks. Unfortunately,
this response is too piecemeal and at times politically
motivated.
One of the first responses to drought is the
perception that areas are being affected by exceptional
deficiencies in rain. The Bureau of Meteorology
maintains an extensive network of rain gauges, and
classifies an area as drought-affected when annual
rainfall is below the tenth percentile. Many states
use this information and data on dam levels, crop,
pasture and range condition, and field reports
through government agencies and politicians, to
declare districts drought-affected. This status is
usually maintained until sufficient rainfall has fallen
to recharge groundwater or regenerate vegetation to
sustain agriculture at an economic level. State relief
to farmers can take many forms. Initially, attempts will
be made to keep stock alive. Subsidies may be given to
sink deeper bores, import fodder to an area, carry out
agistment of livestock in unaffected areas, or import
water using road or rail tankers.
The 1982-1983 drought exemplifies the range of
measures that can be adopted to lessen the hardship of
drought. Over 100 000 breeding sheep were shipped
from the eastern states to Western Australia, a distance
of 3000 km. The Australian National Railways arranged
special freight concessions and resting facilities en
route, while the federal government provided a
75 per cent freight subsidy. In addition, assistance was
given to farmers paying interest rates over 12 per cent,
and a 50 per cent subsidy was provided for imported
fodder for sheep and cattle. Despite such measures,
droughts can be so severe that it is only humane to
destroy emaciated stock. In the 1982-1983 drought,
local councils forced to open and operate slaughtering
pits were reimbursed their costs, and graziers were
given a sheep and cattle slaughter bounty. In South
Australia, each head of sheep and cattle generated a
subsidy of $A10 and $A11, respectively. In addition,
Lais
sez-faire: the Australian policy
(Waring, 1976; Tai, 1983)
Australia is a country plagued by drought, where
efficient grazing and cultivation systems have been
developed to cope with a semi-arid environment.
Droughts rarely occur at the same time across the
continent. Only the 1895-1903 drought affected the
whole country. Most Australian farmers are financially
viable as long as they experience a minimum of three
consecutive harvests in a decade. This expectation
makes it difficult to separate dry years from drought
years. The 1982-1983 drought, which was the worst
in Australian history up to that point in time, was
preceded by several dry years in the eastern states.
Even during the severest times in 1982, the federal
government was slow to instigate drought relief
