| . |  |
. |
| . | |
. |
Agriculture Reviving In Aceh After Tsunami: Scientists
Paris (AFP) Aug 24, 2005 Fears that the most fertile agricultural land in the Indonesian province of Aceh has been wrecked by seawater that swept inland from the December 26 tsunami are unfounded, scientists say. Waves swept up to seven kilometers (4.5 miles) inland as a result of the massive earthquake offshore, killing 131,000 people and covering nearly a third of Aceh's agricultural land with saltwater and sea mud. The biggest worry has been over rice, the staple food in Aceh, as rice plants are sensitive to salt contamination. But experts say that salt from the tsunami did not penetrate very far into the coastal clay soils where rice is grown, and that irrigation with salt-free water has been found to solve the problem, the British weekly New Scientist says. Indeed, aid money to improve irrigation has helped some rice farmers to get better harvests than before the tsunami, it reports in next Saturday's issue. Peanut farmers, though, have been harder hit because salt penetrates deeper into the sandy soils in which peanuts are grown. However, there are hopes that when the wet season grows, the rain will wash out a great deal of the salt, improving the chances for next year's crop. The news is not entirely good, however. Some rice fields remained slathered with thick sea sediment, and in parts of Aceh's flood plain, changes in drainage patterns wreaked by the tsunami mean that once-rich agricultural land is regularly inundated by seawater that rushes up tidal creeks. Such problems may take as long as a decade to fix. The research was led by Australian specialist Peter Slavich of the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, together with scientists from Indonesia's Soil Research Institute. The tsunami killed an estimated 217,000 people in countries around the northern rim of the Indian Ocean and caused billions of dollars in damage. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
Analysis: EU Farm Aid Under Spotlight
Brussels (UPI) Aug 19, 2005Supporters of the EU's much-criticized Common Agricultural Policy, which doles out more than $60 billion of subsidies to European farmers each year, argue the generous handouts are needed to protect smallholders from fleeing the land and to top up the income of poor rural folk. |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
