UN agency in plea for US $17 million for drought victims

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) appealed on Wednesday to the international community for US $17 million to help feed two million people facing severe drought in central and northern Tanzania. "WFP's assistance will dovetail with the government's action plan to feed the most vulnerable people between December and the end of March next year," Nicole Menage, the WFP country director, was quoted as saying in a statement issued in the commercial city of Dar es Salaam. She added, "We only have a small window of opportunity in which to get food aid positioned in time for the leanest months to support those worst affected by the drought." WFP said it planned to feed the two million people during the period by providing 45,000 mt of food. WFP said the shortages, affecting all major food staples, had been caused by poorly dispersed rainfall levels in the 2002-2003 agricultural season. Maize is Tanzania's staple food, but production levels have been adversely affected in recent years by a series of droughts and floods. The agency added that the government was subsidising grain sales until the end of November. "This will benefit those fortunate enough to have access to income, savings or other coping mechanisms such as the sale of livestock," the agency reported. WFP said that more than half of Tanzania's 34 million people lived on less than US $1 per day. Food and cash crop production in the drought-affected areas fell by 30 percent to 50 percent compared to a normal year, WFP said, seriously impacting food security and income levels of the poorest farmers who depend on subsistence agriculture. Some districts recorded crop losses of more than 70 percent of normal production, the agency said. "Already, the drought has caused livestock prices to start tumbling while maize prices have been steadily rising since August, when usually at this time of year maize prices are at their lowest level," Menage was quoted as saying. WFP said the effects of the drought had been compounded by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which had played a significant role in reducing the country's agricultural productivity and undermined the coping strategies of affected populations. Tanzania has an adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of about 12 percent and more than 800,000 children have been left orphaned by AIDS, WFP reported. To help address the effects of the drought and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, WFP has joined forces with the Food and Agricultural Organisation to provide seeds to people receiving food aid, thereby creating a "food for farming" package that would help optimise production levels in the next farming season. The WFP appeal assumes that the short-rain harvest in February 2004 will be at near normal levels, Menage said. "If this is not the case, then there could be an increased need for food aid in the worst-affected areas," she was quoted as saying.