UNHCR to buy refugee farmers' harvests

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Central African Republic (CAR) has received 50 million francs CFA (US $90,958) from its Geneva headquarters to buy maize from Congolese refugee farmers in the country, a UN official told IRIN on Monday. UNHCR Senior Programme Officer Ahmed Fall said the money would be used to buy 30 mt in Camp Molangue, 140 km south of the capital, Bangui, as well as beans, salt and oil from local markets. The food is scheduled to be distributed within two weeks and to last three months. About 600 of the 2,960 refugees from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) would benefit from the food aid. The beneficiaries were transferred from Bangui to the camp after the October 2002 to March 2003 crisis, during which Congolese nationals were targeted by the public angry at a former DRC rebel group, the Mouvement de liberation du Congo, that had fought alongside government troops in the CAR conflict. Unlike other refugees who have settled in the camp since its creation in 2001, this group did not receive land to cultivate and survive the suspension of food delivery by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in January 2003. However, with the intervention of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which provided cassava and maize seeds, and of UNHCR, which bought land from local owners, refugees have been able to farm to a current level of overproduction, forcing them to sell their crops at very low prices last season. Sylvain Makabi, a 39-year-old refugee father of six and chairman of a 20-member farming association, told IRIN on 12 July that his association was expecting to harvest 30 mt of maize, and that he was seeking support from WFP and FAO in marketing his crop. "We held a meeting last week with WFP, FAO and COOPI [Cooperazione Internazionale, an Italian NGO] to consider how to best purchase maize," Fall said. He added that FAO had agreed to buy maize grains to be distributed to farmers now facing acute shortages of seeds due to war. He said a COOPI team was discussing prices with the refugees. [See earlier story, "Refugees battle to survive despite food ration suspension", at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35451]