Food security still poor, says FEWS

Food security in Chad has remained poor in the last few months due to insufficient rainfall, forcing some poor families to eat wild fruits, seeds and roots, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) said. Successive poor harvests due to insufficient rains and other uncontrollable natural phenomenon, have affected the country' food production, including fish and meat production, the USAID-supported FEWS NET said in its May report. Even when food is available, families have difficulties putting food on the table because they are poor, FEWS said. Apart from relying on wild foods, poor families sold charcoal or engaged in other small-scale income-generating activities to survive, it added. Chad is a poor vast landlocked country of seven million people on the southern fringes of the Sahara desert. The government, FEWS NET said, relies mainly on international assistance to make up the country's food deficits. Currently it needs to purchase 25,000 tons of tons while it awaits 5,000 tons of rice from India and another donation from Taiwan. Should international aid delay, FEWS NET said, Chad's national Food Security Agency would have to sell some 13,000 tons of food available in its stocks at an affordable price. The detailed report is available at: www.fews.net