Another food crisis year

By next year over a quarter of Swaziland's 970,000 population will again require food aid to survive, according to a joint report released by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP). "Poor agro-climatic conditions, characterised by late onset of the rainy season and below-average cumulative rainfall, have undermined Swaziland's cereal harvest for the fourth consecutive year," said the Crop and Food Supply Assessment Special Mission. The FAO/WFP mission followed a government declaration of a state of national emergency late last year, and its appeal to the international community for assistance. It found that an estimated 262,000 people would be in need of food aid by the beginning of 2005 - 15,000 more than after the 2003/04 agricultural season. The investigators noted that Swaziland's food production suffered again this year from erratic rainfall, which started late and then became so heavy in mid-season that it threatened budding crops. Farmers heeding the government's call to exercise caution when they planted did not cultivate until late, or planted fewer crops, while others had to plant their fields twice. Swazi farmers were ill prepared to bear such an expense. In a country where two-thirds of people live in chronic poverty, mostly on small communal farms, a lack of funds compromised agricultural production: farmers were unable to purchase the previously subsidised fertiliser and improved seeds in sufficient quantities. "Farmers are becoming less able to afford the cost of fertilisers. The major commercial supplier indicated that this year's fertiliser use may have been down to as low as 9,000 mt nationally, from a high of nearly twice that figure 10 years ago," said the report. "Similar to the situation with fertiliser use, hybrid seed use took another precipitous decline in 2003/04," investigators found. Hybrid maize seed use reached a peak of 4,000 mt nationwide in 1995/96, but after government stopped providing free seeds to farmers, only 1,153 mt were used in 2001/02. The figure was halved to 600 mt last year. The FAO/WFP report noted systemic problems underlying Swaziland's food crisis: "There is no doubt that food insecurity in Swaziland is the result of long-term chronic structural decline; the situation is not transitory and is not likely to disappear after one or two seasons of favourable rainfall. Economic decline has locked large sections of the population of Swaziland into a downward spiral of poverty and food insecurity for the long term." With an agriculturally based economy - four out of five Swazis have agriculture-related jobs or are subsistence farmers on Swazi Nation Land - the food production crisis is acutely felt throughout the population. The report added that AIDS was exacerbating the food security crisis by robbing small landholder households and commercial agricultural plantations of workers. Maize dominates the fields of small landholder farmers. Drought-resistant cassava and other crops that could mitigate the food shortage, such as cotton, groundnuts, pumpkins and sweet potatoes, are infrequently grown.

Cereal supply/demand balance for 2004/05

FAO/WFP estimated 2003/04 maize production at 60,000 mt - about 13 percent below last year's crop and down from the 107,000 mt achieved five years ago. Except for the middleveld, where decent rainfall permitted about a 2 percent increase in fields under cultivation, Swaziland's three other provinces had less land under cultivation this year than the year before, and a total area under cultivation (54,470 ha) that was the lowest since the 1980s. Swaziland, which once was self-sufficient in food production and exported surpluses regionally, now imports 60 percent of its food requirements even in non-drought years. Prices for cereals began to rise early this year, soaring to 45 percent above the five-year average and seriously affecting poorer people. Even "gift giving", a traditional social coping mechanism during times of emergency when better off relatives help family members in drought-stricken areas, was down 70 percent from a normal year, signalling nationwide stress caused by the food crisis. The report faulted the government's agricultural policy for contributing to the food shortage. "The government of Swaziland has encouraged sugar cane production on irrigated TDL [title deed land] in order to improve its foreign exchange earnings through exports of sugar-based products. Meanwhile, the production of maize remains mostly on non-irrigated SNL [Swazi Nation Land]. However, with recent changes in weather patterns that have severely affected grain production on rain-fed lands, the country's ability to meet its cereal requirements through commercial imports is being taxed," the report said. The report recommends a "targeted approach" to food aid. Of primary importance are mitigation efforts for HIV/AIDS, followed by direct support to households without food or access to the agricultural inputs required for this year's planting season. Depending on rains, early spring planting may commence as early as next month. "The cereal import requirement in 2004/05 marketing year (April/March) is estimated at 132,000 mt, of which an estimated 100,000 tonnes are expected to be imported commercially. With food aid in stock and in the pipeline estimated at about 10,000 mt, the uncovered deficit for which international assistance is required is estimated at 22,000 mt," the report concluded. Abboulaye Balde, WFP country representative for Swaziland, told IRIN, "The fact that an independent group of experts came up with these numbers will help government, NGOs and even the WFP to agree on the same statistics - we can chart a course of action together." Balde said WFP would concentrate its activities in the drought-prone lowveld and dry middleveld. "The report is national in scope, so it will alert other agencies and government that there are problems to be addressed in other parts of the country." The 2003/04 agricultural season was the second consecutive year when cumulative rainfall was well below average, and the fourth consecutive year in which erratic rainfall patterns led to below-average national maize production, according to the report. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service told IRIN that some parts of the eastern lowveld were no longer suitable for cultivation, due not only to diminished rainfall but population pressures exerted on marginal land, which had led to deforestation and desertification. For the FAO/WFP report: www.fao.org