IT SWEPT up to 7 kilometres inland, killing tens of thousands and spreading salt and mud across the most fertile agricultural land in Indonesia’s Aceh province. But although the tsunami of 26 December 2004 permanently changed some areas of farmland, fears of a lasting agricultural crisis appear to be unfounded.
“There was a perception that rice would be quite seriously adversely affected. In general, though, we haven’t seen evidence of that,” says Peter Slavich of the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries in Wollongbar, Australia. Slavich’s team, with colleagues including a group at Indonesia’s Soil Research Institute, have been surveying crops and soil salt levels…
