Focus on drought and food problems in Sahel

Inadequate and unpredictable rainfall has damaged crop prospects in parts of the Sahel region of West Africa and left a handful of countries facing serious food security problems in the coming months. Regional organisations responsible for food security and non-governmental organisations, including the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (French abbreviation CLISS), have highlighted the need to plan for food shortages in some of the Sahelian countries this year. In the western Sahel, CLISS says "the countries live in fear of a food crisis," adding that "there is a whole new set of environmental considerations making food security monitoring efforts more complicated." The climatic inter-territorial convergence zone, which brings rainfall to the region, halted its usual northward migration and even shrank back to the south during June and July, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) reported on 5 September. "The rains came to an end before the rainy season had a chance to get established," it said. "Little if any rainfall occurred across Senegal, The Gambia, southern Mauritania and parts of Mali throughout July and August." Earlier, on 12 August, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had reported that "extended dry weather conditions over most parts of The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal have damaged crop prospects and raised serious concerns over food supply outlook... in Cape Verde prospects for the maize crop are not favourable." The Sahel region comprises the West African countries of Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. At least 55 million people live in the region, with some 30 percent in urban areas. Forecasts put the population at over 100 million by the year 2025, half of whom will live in urban areas, according to CLISS. A region of unpredictable rainfall patterns, the Sahel witnessed some of its most serious climate induced food shortages in 1972-'74 and 1984-'85. Up to 250,000 drought-related human fatalities occurred throughout the Sahel region between 1968 and 1973. Localised drought events have also affected several countries over the years, with Burkina Faso, Chad Mauritania and Niger having had a serious food crisis one out of each three years since 1984. The responses to these crises were varied and, to a large extent, donor-dependent. Persistent dry weather in the western Sahel in recent months has again raised fears of food insecurity for particular nations and, perhaps, even the sub-region. Relief agencies, such as the UN World Food Programme (WFP), are worried that if the drought and food situation gets out of control, their response will be constrained by funding problems. "We asked for US $7.4 million for regional emergency. So far we have only received $1.6 million - from Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden and Italy," WFP West Africa regional spokesman, Ramin Rafirasme, told IRIN in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, on Friday. "We still have a funding gap of 78 percent." Mauritania faces a cereal deficit of 205,000 mt, equivalent to five months' cereal consumption needs, FEWS Net reported on Friday. Freak rain storms from 9-11 January caused the death of 120,000 cattle, sheep and goats; destruction of 25 percent of already harvested crops; and loss of lives and property. On 1 September this year, Mauritania declared a major food emergency. According to FEWS Net, at least one million of the country's 2.7 million people are food insecure, and at least 60,000 are immediately threatened by serious food shortage. "The situation is very bad," Philippe Guyon le Bouffy, WFP Country Director in Mauritania, told IRIN on Monday. Two inter-agency missions were out in the field to evaluate the situation and a response would be determined after they returned, he said. Cape Verde has reported that at least 30,000 already face serious food shortages. On 6 September, it created an inter-ministerial committee to examine strategies to mitigate the effects of an anticipated poor food harvest. The Ministry of Labour said it was too early to make a definitive assessment but that the data available pointed to a very low harvest, mainly due to a much lower than average annual rainfall. WFP launched a $1.3 million emergency food operation for Cape Verde in June, mainly for the islands of Santiago and Santo Antao - the largest and most populous islands. It said the arid island chain, 600 km west of Senegal, was a "structurally food insecure country" which could only produce about 10 percent of its food requirements each year. The Gambia's rice crop has been severely affected, while 60 percent of the millet harvest and 40 percent of the maize harvest this year is expected to be lost. Non-governmental organisations working in the country say that cattle have died due to drought. Gambian Vice-President Isatou Njie-Saidy told a West African nutrition forum in the capital, Banjul, on 3 September that West African countries should prepare to face the effects of a poor rainy season this year. "No meaningful development can take place when the people are hungry and malnourished," she warned. In Senegal, the government recently downplayed reports of impending food shortages. On 29 August, President Abdoulaye Wade sacked his communications adviser and apologised to donors for what he said was an unnecessary appeal for food aid. Wade said the government had been misled into believing that five million people risked starvation due to drought, and this had led to an appeal to international donors for $23 million and to the establishment of a government emergency relief unit. Following a presidential visit to the affected regions, the president insisted: "Strictly speaking, there is no famine in Senegal." Worries remain, however. "In addition to lack of rainfall, scorching heat baked most of Senegal and the surrounding area," FEWS Net reported on 5 September. "Since 10 August, seasonal rains [have returned] to Senegal [but] ... it may be too little, too late for many crops." The groundnut and millet crop could be particularly affected. Agriculture, especially groundnut farming, is crucial to Senegal's economy and employs 60 percent of the population. By 9 August, Senegal's groundnut basin had received only 13 percent of the rainfall that would be normal for the season to date (23 mm out of 171 mm). "It is too early to know for sure how big the need will be, but there will certainly be a food deficit," Torrey Olsen, National Director of World Vision Senegal, said on 6 September. In Guinea Bissau, the situation is worrying in the Quinara (Tite and Empada), Gabu (Pitche and Pirada) and Biombo regions, but the government was trying to take steps to provide food and try to help farmers, with the aid of development partners. The crop and food security situation in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger was generally better this year, according to aid agencies, who estimate that aggregate output of cereals in these countries could peak 24 percent above the average for the last five years. FAO said in August that "crop-growing conditions have improved in central and eastern parts of the Sahel, with increased and better distributed rainfall in most agricultural regions... pastures are regenerating gradually." The CLISS regional center for training and application in agro-meteorology and water resources, AGRHYMET, in its August bulletin said the improvement in food security in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger had already led to a drop in the prices of cereals like millet.