CSB shortage puts pressure on food relief

A shortage of corn-soya blend (CSB) has hampered efforts to provide aid to hungry Mozambicans, amid reports that the number of people in need of relief food may well increase. In its latest monthly situation report the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said a supplementary feeding programme in drought-affected districts in Gaza, Tete and Inhambane provinces was unable to provide for all its intended beneficiaries because of a shortage of CSB, an important nutritional commodity. "Although the programme was designed to cover over 200,000 children and pregnant and nursing women, it currently covers only 60 percent of these people due to a lack of fortified CSB," the report found. FEWS NET said seven NGOs had already started implementing the supplementary feeding programme, and four more were scheduled to start in August. "[But while] additional NGOs are prepared to distribute the supplementary food ... insufficient supplies mean that new programmes cannot be started." "Stocks of CSB currently in the country should cover the supply requirements of NGOs currently implementing programmes through [to] the end of the year, but no additional supplies are in the pipeline to meet the needs of the entire target group, or to continue beyond December," FEWS NET added. Meanwhile, Mozambique's Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition (SETSAN) has warned that while some 659,000 people in 40 districts currently require "immediate and continued [relief] assistance until the next harvest in early 2004", about 250,000 more people could join the food aid queue. The SETSAN report, based on its latest food supply and nutritional survey, said a group of 254,779 people were identified as being "at risk", which could see the number of people in immediate need of food aid rising to over 900,000. "While their level of food insecurity cannot be considered extreme at present, there is the possibility of a deterioration before the next harvest - especially in the traditional lean season between October and December - if they exhaust all of their coping options; food prices rise significantly; or if second season production does not perform up to expectations," SETSAN explained. SETSAN advised that food prices and second season production be monitored closely, as they would be indicators of the increasing vulnerability of the "at risk" group. Already the FEWS NET report has warned of "high prices [of staple foods] in the drought-affected areas".