Rains bring hope of averting food shortages

Niger’s prayers have finally been answered as life-giving rains fall across most of the arid country, increasing hopes that last year’s devastating food crisis may not be repeated this year. Heavy annual rains are usually well under way in early July. But this year fears of another drought swept the country as the weeks ticked by without any sign of rain. Muslim religious leaders repeatedly led the nation in special prayers for rain. The rains come at a critical point in the annual lean season when farmers tighten their belts ahead of the harvest in late September and October. Any later, and the harvest could have suffered. Another encouraging sign is that food is available in the country’s markets and, unlike last year, the price is not prohibitively high, according to data from the Famine Early Warning System Network, or FEWS-NET. A series of drought years and the after-effects of a massive locust invasion combined in 2005 to create an extra difficult year across the band of Sahelian countries that fringe the south of Africa’s Sahara desert. Niger, the poorest country in the world according to the UN, was particularly hard-hit. As images of severely malnourished children appeared on television screens in July, an international aid effort swung into action. But the problem was not just about food shortages. Throughout 2005 food was available in Niger’s markets. The problem was, the poorest could not afford to buy it. This week a report by British-based charity Oxfam slammed the main international response to food emergencies in Africa – the giving of food aid. Gifts of food aid are a short-term stop-gap, according to Oxfam, which wants to see poor governments helped to improve food production capacity and security. “The world’s emergency response requires an overhaul… the stop-start approach must give way to longer-term support,” said Oxfam’s “Causing Hunger” report. And worse still, donors rarely buy food aid from quicker and cheaper local producers, but prefer to import food donations from their own sources. “Most food aid is still imported, meaning it can take up to five months to deliver and cost up to 50 percent more than food purchased locally,” said the report. Most of Niger’s 12 million people survive on subsistence agriculture, yet each year more of the country’s vast, dusty territory turns to desert. Three quarters of Niger’s national territory is now classed as desert in a country that was once a net food exporter. ds/ss/cs