El Nino

Low water levels in the Mekong Delta has allowed seawater to penetrate 56 miles inland, ruining vast swathes of cropland, says Reuters.

"Extreme poverty, child mortality, and hunger all fell by around half between 1990 and 2015," thanks to the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2000, says the International Food Policy Research Institute in its 2016 Global Food Policy Report.

While the El Niño weather pattern is waning, an estimated 60 million people worldwide are suffering from the droughts, floods and forest fires linked to the phenomenon, says the United Nations.

Rice farmers curtailed plantings by nearly 2 percent in the face of dry weather caused by the El Niño weather pattern, leading to the smallest world rice crop in four years.

Drought in southern Africa has "significantly dampened production prospects, with severe negative implications for food security in the sub-region," says the FAO's quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report.

An examination of weather and yield data does not provide a definitive indication of whether corn yields will be above or below average this year, but the risk of below-normal yields has to be considered, write two U-Illinois economists.

Much of central and southern Texas is abnormally dry following unusually warm weather and two months of scanty rainfall, reports the Drought Monitor.

The California snowpack is only 83 percent of the average for March 1, "the result of moderate precipitation since last October and relatively warm temperatures," said the state Department of Water Resources.

One of the strongest El Niño weather patterns in half a century is bringing the second consecutive year of low rainfall and high temperatures to southern Africa, humanitarian agencies report. They warn that food shortages could be the worst since a 2002-03 food crisis.

Nearly 100 million people in southern Africa, Asia and Latin America face food and water shortages as well as vulnerable to diseases such as the Zika virus, says the Guardian, summarizing reports by international aid agencies and governments.

California water officials said snowpack in the Sierra Nevada was nearly 19 inches or 115 percent of average, "a modest yet encouraging milestone in a period of prolonged drought," says the Los Angeles Times. It was the deepest snowpack in five years. Meanwhile El Niño rainstorms have raised water levels in reservoirs.

The hottest year on record just ended - 2015 - "a burst of heat that has continued into the new year and is roiling weather patterns all over the world," said the New York Times.

Growers reduced winter wheat plantings 7 percent for this year, but that's just the first step toward harvest, says economist Darrel Good of U-Illinois. The crop will be determined by how much of the land is harvested and by yields, writes Good at farmdoc daily.

The El Niño-intensified drought in southern Africa "could nudge African nations to finally embrace genetically modified crops to improve harvests and reduce grain imports," says Reuters.

A government-owned newspaper says Zimbabwe plans to import up to 700,000 tonnes (28 million bushels) of corn this year to offset crops lost to drought caused by El Niño, said Reuters.

Hot weather and scanty rainfall are dimming the outlook for crops and livestock in southern Africa, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Some farmers have delayed sowing crops while waiting for rain while dry weather hurts emerging crops. "It's the sixth week of the cropping season now and there's not enough moisture in the soil," said an FAO official.

In a rain-making ritual, women in a village in Java chant, "All farmers let us pray that rain comes and washes our sorrow away," reports Reuters. Seasonal rains are late in reaching Java, the main rice-growing island of Indonesia, the fourth-most populous nation in the world with 254 million people.

Soybean futures prices fell 18 percent over a two-month period this summer before rebounding by 9 percent, writes economist Darrel Good of U-Illinois, who says "soybean prices may continue to trade in the wide range of the past three months."