Bumper harvest expected

The aggregate cereal harvest for nine Sahelian countries is expected to reach a record 10.9 million mt this year because of abundant rains in the subregion, the FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture reported in a preliminary assessment of cereal production. In its November assessment, it said the harvest is expected to be 2 percent higher than in 1998 and 16 percent above the average of the last five years. Record crops are anticipated in Cape Verde, The Gambia, Mali and Mauritania, the FAO said. Above-average output is expected in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Senegal. Output is expected to be below average in Guinea-Bissau following the war in 1998. However, despite the war, output for this year in Guinea-Bissau as well as Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, is expected to be generally superior to last year. Production in Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger will be below 1998's record outputs. In the Gulf of Guinea, harvest prospects are good for Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea and Togo. The same heavy rains that raised harvest prospects in the Sahel have adversely affected Ghana and Nigeria which experienced, perhaps, the subregion's worst rain-caused floods this year. Liberia and Sierra Leone, also part of the Gulf of Guinea, remain heavily dependent on international food aid, due to their recent wars.