drought
Solar Minimum of Cycle 13 (116 years ago) was the last time Australian wheatbelts had it this tough, as a severe drought shaves more that 20% off domestic grain production.

Australia is normally the biggest wheat exporter in the Southern Hemisphere, but the prolonged drought has fried its grain crop in recent years. In 2018, output tumbled 20% to just over 17 million tonnes, the lowest in more than a decade, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

On May 9, 2019 the Australian government had no choice but to import 60,000 tons of wheat from Canada.

The cargo is expected to arrive in the next 6 to 8 weeks and will be processed at Manildra Group's Shoalhaven Starches plant in NSW.

"Due to the worst drought in 116 years, high-protein wheat is in short supply which is critical to the Shoalhaven Starches wheat-processing plant," a spokesman for the plant said.

"The reason this announcement has garnered so much attention is that it just doesn't happen," said James Maxwell, an analyst for Australian Crop Forecaster.

The last such shipment was back in 2007 (solar minimum of cycle 23).

solar cycle
In 2018, NSW recorded its lowest rainfall in a five-month period since 1900 — that takes us back to the Centennial Minimum, and the last time the sun experienced an extended period of reduced activity.

Historical documentation warns us time and time again that any prolonged reduction in solar output correlates with a shift in regional climates and devastation for the food production systems civilisation has in place — see wiki.iceagefarmer and NOAA report.

We're now transitioning out of solar cycle 24 (the lowest cycle since 14, 1902-1913), and into cycle 25 which, according to even the most optimistic predictions, will see a further 30% reduction.

The resulting impact on global food production will rock our modern civilisation.

Last August, when 99 percent of NSW was already in drought, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull conceded, "Now we are the land of droughts and flooding rains, we recognise that."

Prepare Australia.