DROUGHT has been society’s scourge from biblical times. The land is parched. Standing crops wilt. The bright sun, for once, is not a blessing but a curse. Across the farming areas, desperate farmers preside over the detritus of the failed season: young yellow corn shrunk to a wasted pale brown, month-old rice plantings that even famished carabaos won’t touch, lifeless vegetable crops hanging limp on their improvised trellises.