Poor harvest prospects after dismal rains

A recent joint assessment of the 1999 'Gu' crop has estimated Somalia's cereal harvest, which constitutes 75-80 percent of the country's annual production, will amount to a meagre 128,880 mt -just above that of 1998, which had the lowest yield in five years, and 29 percent lower than the last 'normal' Gu harvest of 1993-1998. Predictions in June when crops were knee-high were revised downwards by over 20 percent during the assessment
mission - conducted by the Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU), WFP, FAO and USAID's Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) - with the sorghum belt of Bay, Bakool, Hiran and rainfed areas of Gedo, Middle and Lower Shabelle worst hit. The water situation in southern Somalia has also become precarious, especially for livestock, with water points congested and water catchments and boreholes either drying up or not functioning at all, an emergency report by WFP, received by IRIN, stated.

Meanwhile, the European Community has approved 8,000 mt of food to WFP, on top of 10,000 mt already allocated, and given another 4,000 mt of food aid for distribution to CARE. USAID, which has given CARE 10,000 mt for a food-for-work programme as well as 6,000 mt in emergency food aid, is expected to provide an additional US $5.3 million to fund emergency activities, including health, water and logistical needs, before the end
of the month. The two donors said, in a joint statement this week, that their pledges came in direct response to appeals from the Somalia Aid Coordination Body (SACB) and hoped that humanitarian agencies were now in a position "to avert the worst effects of the food crisis."