Drought spreads to cities

THE drought still holds almost two-thirds of NSW in its grip, with hardworking families now feeling the pinch at the supermarket checkout, NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald says. The area of NSW that is officially drought-declared has increased slightly over the last month, from 65 per cent to 66.2 per cent, Mr Macdonald said. Another 18.5 per cent of NSW is marginal, down from 20.9 per cent in mid-July. Only 15.3 per cent of NSW is declared "satisfactory", up from 14.1 per cent last month.

Mr Macdonald said that while farmers remained optimistic about this year's crop prospects, above average spring rainfall was needed to give them a reasonable yield. "The good news is that our cropping sector is in a much better position than this time last year," he said. "However, we really need good rain before the end of August. "Only the eastern third of NSW received reasonable rainfall in July and unfortunately this rainfall was just not widespread or significant enough to make a real dent in the ongoing dry conditions for much of regional NSW." Mr Macdonald said the drought was not only hitting rural areas hard. City dwellers were also paying the price at supermarkets for staples such as rice, he said. "Water availability in irrigated agriculture areas like the Murray Valley is extremely low - this has a cumulative effect, affecting prices from the farm gate to the checkout," he said.

_{Bron: Herald Sun}