Hyderabad, India, July 20, 2008—Muslims gather on the outskirts of India's fourth largest city to offer a special prayer for rain known as Namaz-e-Istaqsaa. Despite the start of the four-month monsoon season earlier this summer, the city has received no rain.

Below-average precipitation may diminish yields of corn, rice, and other crops, media outlets report. "Unless there's heavy rainfall by early August there will be problem," Qamar Iqbal Khan, a planning director with the state farm ministry in Hyderabad, told the Bloomberg news agency.

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