Government declares crop failure

The Gambian government has declared 2002/2003 "a year of crop failure and food shortage", Vice-President Isatou Njie-Saidy said in a briefing to the diplomatic community, heads of UN agencies, other development partners and the media on Thursday night in the capital, Banjul. Poor rainfall has hampered this year's planting season in The Gambia and other parts of the Sahel, including Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Niger. Njie-Saidy said that in The Gambia, the "precarious situation could worsen if the paucity of rains persists". She said an assessment had concluded that the rice crop was almost totally lost, a 60-percent loss was expected for early millet and maize and the projected yield of groundnuts, the main export crop, would be reduced by at least 40 percent. The Gambian vice-president stressed the gravity of the food situation, especially in rural areas, where the people are normally dependent on subsistence farming. Food stocks were "dangerously low" due to "complete crop depletion", she said, adding: "This situation coupled with low cash reserves has left most families facing lengthened periods of hunger". Njie-Saidy also launched an appeal for emergency assistance for "hundreds of thousands" of people facing hunger. "Having assessed the situation together with our development partners, the Gambian government has drawn up an action plan estimated at about US $27 million to address immediate food needs," she said. In response to the government's appeal, the Catholic Relief Services pledged to give about 500 mt of sesame. World Food Programme Country Representative Alice Martin-Daihirou said her agency and the Food and Agriculture Organization were following the situation very closely. "It is a situation that could become better or get worse depending on the amount of rainfall," she told IRIN on Thursday afternoon. From August 11 to 16, a mission visited the affected areas of North Bank River, Central River, Lower River and Western Division to verify reports on crop failure in those areas. The delegation included Ministry of Agriculture officials, the heads of WFP and FAO, and an NGO representative. "By the time of the mission the rains had already started in most of the areas and there was a slight change in the sense that crops that were planted in late July at the onset of the rains were doing well, although the ones which had been planted in late May or in June had already wilted," Martin-Daihirou said. The mission recommended that the situation be closely monitored and that a contingency plan be put in place for possible coping mechanisms in case the rains stopped. It also recommended a follow-up mission in early September.