Preliminary harvest estimates by Niger's Ministry of Rural Development indicate a gross production of 1.3 million mt of food, the USAID says in its Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) bulletin of 31 March.
It quotes the Niger Ministry of Rural Development as saying about 270,000 mt of this production will be in cereals. These production figures, FEWS says, "doubles the disappointing 1998/99 production".
The Department of Maradi has experienced main season cereal production shortfalls in six of its seven districts, galvanizing its population towards market gardening. The badly affected area is Guidan Roumdji, which experienced a 40-percent shortfall.
In addition, flooding of the Koumadougou River in the Department of Diffa has caused farmers there to cultivate slightly less land than the previous year. FEWS says off-season gardening has not yet started near Lake Chad because of the high water level.
Off-seasonal market gardening improves incomes, varies diet, retards the onset of the hungry period and, FEWS adds, "decreases the need for out-migration in search of supplementary income".
However, surplus produce often perish because they cannot be transformed for storage and only a fraction can be eaten.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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