 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
Agriculture Reviving In Aceh After Tsunami: Scientists
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. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links TerraDaily Search TerraDaily Subscribe To TerraDaily 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 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights 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 Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service. |
