Most of the labor force is engaged in subsistence agriculture, especially livestock herding, although drought has decreased agricultural activity.

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Growth has picked up, averaging 5% a year in recent - although the 2002-2003 financial year saw the economy expand just 4.3% as a punishing drought ate into agricultural production.

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Australia has produced some of its biggest agricultural crops in times of greatest drought.

ECONOMIST: So long as it doesn��t cost too much

For one thing, it was hard for them to meet their agricultural goals because they had a drought every year.

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But this year the primary corn (maize) and soyabean agricultural belt has been hard hit by the drought of the past three months: crops, pastures and rangeland have deteriorated at a rate rarely seen in the past 20 years.

ECONOMIST: Agriculture

The Texas Agricultural Extension Service says that this year's drought is the worst the state has suffered since the 1950s.

ECONOMIST: From none to too much

Estrada pledges to focus on the country's inefficient and chronically neglected agricultural sector, which last year suffered its worst drought in 30 years.

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But the effects of the devastating drought that is ravishing the U.S. were felt, with agricultural commodity prices causing concern in some districts.

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Agricultural output accounts for a fifth of the economy overall, and an El-Nino-related drought has hammered the farming business into a seasonally-adjusted 2% contraction from the October-December quarter.

BBC: A rickshaw pedals through flooded streets

Orion Genomics hopes to start pulling in revenues next year from its proprietary method of sequencing, mapping and cloning agricultural genes--technology that can be used to improve crop yield, develop pest resistance or help plants survive drought, flooding and cold.

FORBES: Yes, there is a pulse