1.   It is an unusual predicament for a fertile country that has in past years often recorded surpluses and readily imported food when harvests fell short.

2.   Burundi is a fertile country and grows most of its own food.

3.   The government announced Tuesday that Bulgaria had almost doubled its wheat harvest compared to last year, when the fertile Balkan country was hit by unprecedented shortages.

4.   This fertile country used to pay its neighbors for natural gas with tea and wine, but the factories producing them are closed.

5.   Modern civilisation has survived through the colonisation of of fertile countries and through scientific and technical advances using new sources of energy, such as coal, it said.

6.   The GCC nations have also been reluctant to invest in the farming sector in such fertile countries as Sudan, Iraq and Lebanon because of wars.