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US drought intensifying

Dunya News

A new report shows drought in the US is rapidly intensifying and shows no signs of abating.

The US Drought Monitor report released Thursday shows that the amount of land classified in extreme or exceptional drought jumped to more than 20 percent, up 7 percent from last week.More than 63 percent of the continental U.S. is in some stage of drought, a portion unseen since the Drought Monitor started in 1999.The drought has sent corn, soybean and other commodity prices soaring in recent weeks.The Department of Agriculture said Wednesday the drought will help push food prices up by 3 percent to 4 percent next year.