Concern over urban food security

Concern is mounting over urban food security in Mozambique with retail maize prices continuing to be much higher than normal and supplies not as regular, the latest Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report for the country said. The Agricultural Market Information System (SIMA) said market prices were expected to continue to rise between now and the next harvest beginning in February/March. Although the higher prices should create strong incentives for farmers to plant more, they would be a blow to households who have run out of their own stocks and are forced to purchase additional supplies. The roughly one-third of the population who live in urban areas, mostly in Maputo and Matola, would be particularly hard-hit by the increased prices. The urban poverty rate is already 60.2 percent, compared with 71.2 percent for people living in rural areas. Due to population pressure, only a small portion of the urban poor in Maputo have access to land to grow their own food. In addition, rising transport costs have reduced the access of urban Mozambicans to produce from relatives living in rural areas. Food production, mainly in the south and centre of the country, was hit by weather-related crop failures earlier this year. As a result, over 500,000 people in 43 districts are struggling to cope, requiring 70,050 mt of food aid until April 2003. An Institute of Statistics (INE) monthly urban survey found that food made up more than 60 percent of the average family's total expenditure, and the Ministry of Health has begun to update statistics designed to compare the relationship between minimum household food baskets and minimum wages. The report noted that poor households were eating more rice than usual due to the sharply rising prices of maize. Importers were competing for regional supplies which are already under pressure due to demand from the other countries in the region experiencing maize shortages. The report noted that HIV/AIDS, unemployment and declines in remittances from friends and relatives in South Africa had also contributed to urban vulnerability. "We are concerned," Owen Calvert, World Food Programme (WFP) vulnerability analysis and mapping consultant told IRIN on Tuesday. WFP plans to join a number of NGOs, the Ministry of Health, SIMA and FEWS NET in an urban assessment, to complement recent rural assessments. "With urban households you assume they have some form of income, whereas rural households have some form of production, so urban households are more susceptible when there are price increases. The impact of this is not yet clear and we will work with FEWS NET to assess the situation," Calvert said.