North faces severe cereals shortage - UN agencies say

People in the north of the Central African Republic (CAR) are facing an acute shortage of cereals, exposing children and vulnerable groups to malnutrition, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) say. WFP Representative in the CAR David Bulman told IRIN on Friday that due to war displacement and lack of seeds, farmers in the provinces of Ouham, Ouham Pende, Nana Gribizi and Kemo – which have a combined population of 1.3 million - had not produced the normal average of 507,000 mt of cereal: mainly maize, sorghum and rice. He said there would be a deficit of 120,000 mt of cereal, representing 23 percent of the normal production. "People will be eating cassava, almost exclusively, between January and April [2004]," he said. He added that cassava harvests had increased by between 10 percent and 25 percent, compared to previous seasons because "farmers planted cassava in additional lands where cereals used to be planted" because of lack of seeds. He added that malnutrition among children and other vulnerable groups would be anticipated beginning January 2004, as cassava was nutritionally poor. The FAO representative in the CAR, Samuel Nana-Sinkam, told IRIN on Monday that the increase in cassava was also due to the introduction of a virus resistant variety of the tuber, which the FAO imported in 2001 from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria, and distributed the same year to farmers in the north. Bulman said the absence of cereals in the people's daily food could lead to a drop in farming activity, as farmers would lack the energy to work. Moreover, he said, poor food would considerably increase the number of patients reporting to health centres and complicate the situation of nursing and pregnant women. Bulman said some women had been reported to have gone to their farms with their babies and returned at the end of the day without them, because the infants had died of hunger. The WFP and FAO figures are the first accurate ones ever provided about food security in the north since October 2002, when war between rebels and government soldiers first broke out. Bulman said thier efforts were a result a synthesis of data provided by FAO and WFP experts who toured the region several times, and the incorporation of those provided by government agricultural specialists and rural farmers. The six-month war in the north of the country that ended on 15 March with Francois Bozize seizing power from President Ange-Felix Patasse disrupted the farming season, which was completely lost in some regions. The rebels and displaced farmers consumed seeds meant for planting and some farmers had not returned to their homes when the planting season started in April and May. A UN mission that visited the north in late July warned of a possible famine if no urgent assistance was given to war-affected populations. The UN system’s $9.1 million urgent appeal for aid in May included $4.85 million to provide food and seeds to 150,000 farmers. The UN coordinator in the CAR, Stan Nkwain, told IRIN on 1 August that there had been no response to the UN appeal by then. He said the UN was preparing another appeal to be presented before December, where aid for the farming sector would be emphasised. So far, no large-scale food or seed distribution has been organised in the north. However, a selective distribution of food is underway in schools in four northern provinces, where at least 100,000 children will receive two cooked meals daily for the current and the coming school year.