Food security outlook fair

Rwanda's overall food output for July-December is estimated at 962,000 mt of "cereal equivalents", the USAID-funded FEWS NET said in its food security report of 19 July for the country.

"Unfortunately," it said, "this performance is mainly due to the positive impact of good rains up to early May on certain crops, mainly roots and tubers, rather than on agricultural innovations."

The nationwide food output, it said, should provide about 1,928 kilocalories per person per day during this second half year.

Contrary to fears a month ago, it said, the impact of the early end of the rains on sorghum in the country's high altitude areas "was not very significant". A joint assessment mission - carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, the World Food Programme and FEWS NET - believed that at national level, the production of sorghum had increased by four percent over 2001, FEWS NET reported.

However, it added, the impact of the early ending rains on beans had been "very high", with national production estimated at 15 percent lower this year than in 2001.

FEWS NET said if the country maintained the same level of food imports, which the assessment mission put at 150,000 mt of cereal equivalents for the first six months of the year, then there should be enough food for national consumption during the second half of 2002.

However, FEWS NET added, because disaster could strike unexpectedly, and due to the prevalence of poverty, "food assistance remains indispensable". It added that the high-altitude areas, where close to half the population lives, were likely to have pockets of food shortages, especially during the hunger period of November-December.