Agricultural disasters may not be as dramatic as a volcanic eruption or a hurricane, but they are by far the most damaging. Worldwide, since 1967, drought alone has been responsible for millions of deaths and has cost hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. Many different climatic events can trigger crop failures including excess rainfall leading to flood damage or crop disease, heat waves, drought, fire, unexpected cold snaps, severe storms, climate-related disease outbreaks, and insect invasions. Large-scale weather patterns such as El Niño, La Niña, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation affect agriculture world-wide by changing rainfall patterns. The average El Niño costs about $2 billion in agricultural losses in the United States. Satellite remote sensing provides a way to monitor worldwide agriculture. High- and moderate-resolution sensors provide photo-like images of crop areas; measurements of outgoing longwave radiation provide information on cloud-cover and rainfall patterns; and vegetation index measurements (NDVI/EVI) record vegetation density. Check out our related links for Crops & Drought.

Latest Crops & Drought Events

	Crops & Drought: Locusts in West Africa Though the locust situation was calm in West Africa at the beginning of August 2008, conditions were ripe for a major outbreak. 1 Image, Posted: August 06, 2008
	Crops & Drought: Drought in Ethiopia Drought crept over Ethiopia after the failure of rains in October and November 2007. 2 Images, Updated: June 02, 2008
	Crops & Drought: Drought in the Fertile Crescent One of the worst droughts in the past decade settled heavily over the Fertile Crescent region of Iraq and Syria in the winter of 2007-2008. 2 Images, Updated: May 30, 2008
	Crops & Drought: Record Crops in India With the harvest in the spring of 2008, India was set to produce a record rice and corn crop. 2 Images, Updated: May 02, 2008
	Crops & Drought: Locusts in East Africa For the first time since 1961, locusts invaded Kenya in late 2007, taking advantage of an unusually ample food supply. 1 Image, Posted: December 04, 2007
	Crops & Drought: Locusts in Sudan Plenty of water and unusually thick vegetation allowed potentially dangerous locust swarms to develop in Sudan in October and November 2007. 1 Image, Posted: November 14, 2007
	Crops & Drought: Drought in Moldova Persistent hot, dry weather across southeastern Europe during the summer of 2007 left Moldova in its worst drought in living memory. 1 Image, Posted: October 04, 2007
	Crops & Drought: Drought in Australia August 2007 brought little rain to relieve a multi-year drought in southern Australia. 1 Image, Posted: September 18, 2007
	Crops & Drought: Drought in Southwestern United States Much of the southwestern United States experienced moderate to severe drought in 2007. 2 Images, Updated: September 13, 2007
	Crops & Drought: Drought in the Pacific Northwest As summer headed toward fall in 2007, much of the United States was experiencing drought. Vegetation conditions in the Northwest were mostly average or below average in late August 2007. 1 Image, Posted: September 13, 2007

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