Thanks to Erik for pointing this out…
Chinese Government Plans to Cause Ten Percent More Rain By 2015
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-12/china-aims-modify-weather-producing-more-rain-produce-more-crops
Actually, if they are successful in increasing rain by 10% for a measly $157 million, they might be on to something. I am quite sure that during Texas’ drought over the summer a wee bit more rain would have made a huge difference (of course, the idea of using science to try to increase rain goes against the governor and his ‘pray for rain’ crusade (how did that go anyway?)). Also, I suspect that with some careful thought, seeding rain could help diffuse or minimize storms and spreading the rain out over a longer time period tends to be better for crops (and erosion control) as well.
It is very hard to do controlled studies of these sorts and as such it is hard to get main stream science to take the work seriously, but there is an industry devoted to seeding rain clouds and I find it hard to believe there would be an industry at all if there were no positive effect at all.
Interesting. There is a story, possibly apocryphal, about the city of San Diego once being very badly in need of rain. They promised a rainmaker fellow something like $10,000 to bring about the wet stuff.
He succeeded. The ensuing floods caused millions in damage. They refused to pay up.