1.   The crop was ravaged by drought during critical development stages and a frost in early spring.

2.   The decline in placements came after many ranchers thinned their herds last spring and summer amid drought ravaged pasture lands and record-high feed prices.

3.   The country has endured decades of conflict, and in the past three years drought has ravaged the countryside.

4.   In the country as a whole, ravaged by drought in recent years, subsistence agriculture dominates the landscape, encouraging farmers to grow poppies for the heroin trade.

5.   A long drought has ravaged the soya plantations in the south of the country, and sent the price soaring of this key vegetable oil.

6.   Zimbabwe, ravaged by drought in recent years, was hit by floods at the weekend.

7.   Prices remain high because of a shortage of exports from Africa, where tea crops were ravaged by drought earlier in the year.