Food security situation improved

The food situation in the region has improved markedly in 2001 compared to last year, with good harvests realised or expected in Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, reflecting favourable weather conditions, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) stated on Thursday in its latest Africa report. With harvesting of the 2001 cereal crops underway in the northern countries of East Africa and completed in southern parts, this year's aggregate output was expected to be well up on the reduced level of last year, according to the report. See http://www.fao.org/giews/english/eaf/eaftoc.htm However, successive poor rains in pastoral areas of the region and northwards, particularly in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, continued to cause acute food shortages and the migration of thousands of people in search of water and food, it said. Pastoral populations in Kenya continued to depend on food assistance due to drought conditions that have persisted for the past three years, it added. In Kenya, overall food supply has improved considerably due to favourable rains in major cereal producing areas but "a precipitous decline in maize prices is negatively impacting on farmers' incomes," the FAO reported. In northern and eastern Kenya, hopes of recovery for pastoralists from the effects of the recent prolonged drought had been dashed by continued drought conditions in these areas. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported earlier this week that short rains were continuing throughout Kenya, although it was difficult to estimate the effects on food security at this stage. An inter-agency food security assessment ongoing, it said, and this was expected to shed more light on the food security situation for the next few months. In the livestock sector, no real recovery from the drought was guaranteed as yet, and deaths were still being reported in Mandera and northern Wajir, northwestern Kenya, although there was good grazing in some other areas, OCHA reported. It cited the Drought Monitoring Centre as saying that, in spite of the recent rains, drought conditions had persisted over most of northern and eastern Kenya (as well as southeastern Ethiopia and southern Somalia, where food security is now precarious), with pastoralists in search of water and pasture causing insecurity due to conflicts over limited pasture and water resources. Food insecurity was increasing for over 3,000 people displaced by two weeks of violent clashes in Tana River District, eastern Kenya, as the threat of further violence meant they were unable to access their farms or find pasture for their cattle, UNOCHA stated on Tuesday. More than 50 people have been killed in the last week - bringing the toll to well over 100 this year - in clashes between the Pokomo and pastoralist Ormas, resulting from competing claims over land and water resources. Fortunately, OCHA added, much of Kenya was likely to have had reasonable to above-normal rainfall between 1-10 December, except for northwestern Kenya. In Sudan, despite extensive floods in parts that displaced tens of thousands of people, overall prospects for current crops had improved, the UN food agency reported. In Tanzania and Uganda, it said, the overall food supply situation was adequate following recent good harvests and improved pastures but food difficulties remained in parts, due to localised drought conditions and/or insecurity.