EVEN AS the midwestern states in USA are awash with flood waters, farmers in the southeast are contending with a severe drought and face agricultural losses that have already hit $800 million in the Carolinas and Georgia.

US department of agriculture authorities say the worst-hit crops in the tri-state area, which has been in the grip of drought for months, are maize, soya bean, peanut, tobacco and cotton as well as poultry and livestock.