Ninth drought and one will be suffering — crops being this? (4,2,3,6)
I believe the answer is:
thin on the ground
'crops being this?' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'ninth drought and one will be suffering' is the wordplay.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'will be suffering' indicates an anagram.
'ninth'+'drought'+'one'='ninthdroughtone'
'ninthdroughtone' with letters rearranged gives 'THIN ON THE GROUND'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for thin on the ground that I've seen before include "Rare" , "Present in very small numbers" , "A sprinkling of snow" , "scarce" , "description of weedy fighter after KO?" .)