Droughts like these would not be a problem if conventional farmers had not been strip mining the land with anhydrous and pesticides/fungicides/herbicides for decades.
the water holding capacity of farmland that has been properly maintained by fostering growth of beneficial bacteria and fungus is many times that of the conventional fields throughout midwest and elsewhere.
the soil is so hard in many of the conventionally farmed fields you can not push a penetrometer more than a few inches without difficulty. The water holding cap is severely diminished and it can only last a short while before the frankencrops begin to die of lack of water. plus they are often tiled leading to flooding of nearby towns during heavy rains. it's like flushing a toilet instead of the field keeping and holding all of that rain.