ONE PHENOMENON OF THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS
THE STORK IS DELIVERING MORE NEW MOUTHS TO FEED
THAN CLIMATE AND MAN’S INGENUITY CAN ACCOMMODATE
SAME GOD WHO MADE THIS PLANET CONTROLS PHENONEMA
FAMINE IS ONE OF THE FIVE PHENOMENA SEEN IN LUKE 21:11!
Luke 21:11 – And great earthquakes shall be in
divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights
and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Matthew 24:8 – All these are the beginning of sorrows.
February 23, 2010
PLEASE CONSULT ARCHIVE PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 20 FOR FULL EXPOSITION ON FUTURE WORLDWIDE FAMINE.
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Begin Excerpt 1 from Arab News via World News
Arab self-sufficiency in food
Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed
Arab News
February 7, 2010
FOOD security is the ability of a nation or community to secure its needs of basic food commodities by producing them locally or importing the best quality from abroad at lowest prices. The greater the self-reliance on food needs the less political pressure a nation will face.
Exporting countries, particularly in times of crisis, need to keep most of their products for their people. Therefore, and in case of food shortage at global level and weak international competition, these countries keep the best quality for them and export the worst ones for highest prices.
The Arab world is suffering acute food shortage and the financing of food imports has become a tremendous burden on most Arab countries as it depletes a large amount of nati
onal income without covering the shortage in most of food commodities in the Arab countries, especially wheat.
The decline in domestic production and increasing dependence on imports have weakened the capabilities of the Arab countries to become self-sufficient. This constitutes a greater danger to their citizens, because what are imported are essentials and have no alternatives and cannot be dispensed with.
In addition to the external factors, there are negative aspects in the Arab countries that have deepened the problem. The population increase has exceeded the average growth rates in agricultural production, a matter that led to an imbalance in the supply and demand conditions. At the same time the migration from rural areas to cities led to urban expansion at the expense of agricultural lands.
The lack of sufficient water resources and misuse of these resources as well as the dependence on irrigated agriculture have increased the rate of water consumption, especially the groundwater to the extent that many people, especially in Saudi Arabia, accuse farmers of wasting the national water resources.
In addition, cultivated area in Arab countries has declined to one third of the cultivable lands. There are many reasons for this such as the lack of optimal use of all resources to compensate for
the big shortage in food commodities, the absence of unified Arab action to develop agricultural exports and an inability to strike a balance between locally produced food and imported ones.
TO this should be added the neglect of research and development in the field of seeds at a time when international companies conduct research on seeds that need little quantities of ordinary water and high saline water. In addition, subsidies to farmers have decreased while the prices of agricultural inputs have gone up. There are also restrictions on the terms of delivery of the harvest in the “silos” by permitting the delivery of limited quantities compared to the full capacity of the agricultural projects. This makes farmers go for delivery permits from other people who have permits but have no farms for higher amounts deducted from their profits. In this connection, it should be noted that there is a need to issue delivery permits in accordance with the production capacity of the farms. Permits should be granted only to those farmers who have actually cultivated their farms. In addition, farmers are compelled to sell their crops to the government for prices fixed by the government itself, forcing some to abandon their farms.
Production of food commodities in terms of size and type is governed by the policies of the big powers in the world, which have turned some of these commodities such as wheat, sugar, and rice into strategic commodities used as a weapon against poor or underdeveloped countries to subdue them to serve their own interests.
The problem worsens in the event of international crises such as those we are currently experiencing.
WE must make the best use of the huge agricultural potentials in the Arab world by overcoming the problems that prevent the exploitation of their full use. All this must be handled in a comprehensive development perspective to make the optimum utilization of the components of the agricultural sector. Attention also must be paid to the decline of the agricultural economy in these countries, noting that agriculture is still a vital source of living for a large number of people. What is more, it has to do with food security, which affects human beings and their very existence.
[…….]
The industrialized world is also part of the problem, as they increase the demand for biofuels.
For example, in Indonesia and Malaysia there is a continuous increase in the exploitation of vast agricultural areas to grow plants used in biofuels industry. Palm trees are used for production of oil. This led to a rise in the prices of vital crops needed by the people, such as corn and wheat. Therefore we must support the international institutions that fight against such practices.
We must develop food crops that give high productivity, resist diseases and need little water or accept saline water.
We should also look for better ways of irrigation that keep the plants alive and do not deplete our water resources quickly. This can be achieved only through participation in international conferences and training national cadres to undertake their responsibility in this regard.
Food security keeps us away from foreign interference and alleviates poverty of the people. We must implement integrated agricultural policies in all Arab countries to bridge the gap between the production of food crops and the total demand for them. This way we will be able to achieve food sufficiency for all Arab people.
— Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed is a Saudi businessman based in Riyadh
Begin Excerpt 2 from Middle East On Line via World News
Over a million Syrians affected by drought
February 22, 2010
Middle East Online
Some 300,000 families have fled eastern, northeastern Syria to search for work in urban cities.
DEIR EZ ZOUR – Drought in eastern and northeastern Syria has driven some 300,000 families to urban settlements such as Aleppo, Damascus and Deir ez Zour in search of work in one of the largest internal displacements in the Middle East in recent years.
The country’s agriculture sector, which until recently employed 40 percent of Syria’s workforce and accounted for 25 percent of gross domestic product, has been hit badly, but farmers themselves are worst affected, say aid officials.
In some villages, up to 50 percent of the population has left for nearby cities.
“Farmers who depend on only one crop are in trouble – they have nothing else to help them and they have to move,” said Abdulla Bin Yehia, a representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Damascus.
Those with livestock have seen the cost of feed rise 75 percent, accord ing to FAO, result
ing in the deaths of up to 80 percent of livestock on small and medium-sized farms.
More than one million people, already bordering on the poverty line because of low incomes, have been affected by the drought. Outdated and wasteful irrigation methods used by farmers are also contributing to the problem, experts said.
Syria’s water shortages have been worsening year by year.
In 2006, northeastern regions such as Hasakeh and Qameshleh were the first to feel the effects of a lack of rain. Since then, farmers and crop-growers in southern and eastern areas – both east and west of Deir ez Zour, and south of Damascus in Sweida – are now suffering from a major drop in rainfall.
Addressing the issues on 15 February, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Syrian government conducted a training session in the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez Zour to assist emergency food distribution.
In one of a series of meetings of the Syrian Economics Society in Damascus in January, officials for the first time shed light on the extent of the drought in eastern Syria: Almost 60,000 families with 100 cattle or less have lost half their animals and poverty levels stand at 80 percent, according to Khader al-Muhaisen, who spoke on behalf of the Syrian Peasants’ Union.
Fighting drought
A number of initiatives have been tabled to reduce the effects of drought on Syria’s rural communities, including a programme involving Syria’s General Establishment for Drinking Water and Sewerage, FAO, and the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC), which hopes to finish a US$40 million project to provide drinkable water to 130,000 people in the region of Hasakeh by the end of 2010.
Additionally, in January the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform and FAO signed a document to enhance the capability of early warning drought systems in cooperation with SDC, which is to provide funding $476,000 and technical aid.
With hundreds of thousands having left their farms and communities, this year’s rainfall may go to waste with no one present to farm the land and to grow and cultivate crops.
Bin Yehia of FAO said his organization is encouraging people to return to their villages by offering free wheat and other seed to farmers but told IRIN: “Returning to their communities is entirely voluntary but these incentives are important in order to give them hope for their land and for their futures”.
However, the key barrier to assisting communities in eastern and northeastern Syria remains funding. Last August, $48 million in international assistance was pledged towards the Syria Drought Response Plan but at the end of January only a small fraction had been received, according to local media reports.
“We are at a crucial time of the year for farmers now. We have had enough rain for the seeds of crops to germinate but there are two threats. If there is no more rain in the drought-affected areas within the next six to seven weeks then we may not have any crop. Also, if these areas experience frost then the crops will be destroyed and farmers will be devastated for another year,” said FAO’s Bin Yehia.
So far this winter, recorded rainfall across the country has been higher than in previous years and many are hoping for this to continue into March when water for crops is most needed.
But officials are cautious: “It is only at the end of March or beginning of April that we can say if this year’s crop will be successful or not. For now we can only say ‘so far, so good,’” said Bin Yehia.
Associated Excerpts from Listed Sources via World News
Excerpt 3
Drought continues to ravage SW China
China Daily
BEIJING: A total of 53.36 million Mu (about 3.56 million hectares) of crops in China had been affected by severe drought by Saturday, said the Office of State Flood Control and…
Excerpt 4
Apathy forces farmers to migrate for livelihood
Deccan Chronicle
Apathy forces farmers to migrate for livelihood…
Excerpt 5
Drought inflicts a heavy toll
China Daily
$57 million earmarked for relief efforts in Yunnan The worst drought in 60 years that has left millions of people in Yunnan province lacking drinking water has also fueled forest…
Excerpt 6
Cultivation of oilseed crops drops sharply
The News International
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 By Munawar Hasan
LAHORE: Cultivation of key oilseed crops has dropped significantly in the country and there are fears that even 50 per cent of sowing…
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