Food security in Bugesera worrying, FEWS NET warns

Food security in Bugesera, central southern Rwanda, is worrying as households there are depleting cassava reserves and many have not planted new cassava because of lack of planting material and insufficient rainfall, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has warned. In its 18-22 November food security bulletin, FEWS NET reported that a long dry spell in the second half of November had caused the main crop of the season, beans, to wither and in some cases, to dry up. "In [Bugesera's] seven and eight sectors of Nyamata and Gashora districts respectively, home to approximately 100,000 people, rains were too late and too insufficient to allow beans planting," FEWS NET said. It said that rainfall in the region had been generally erratic, resulting in poor harvests in the last two seasons. Cassava is the crop that contributes the most to food and incomes in Bugesera, FEWS NET reported. "The current food insecurity in area is therefore likely to persist and even to worsen for at least up to June 2004," it reported. In the districts of Cyarubare, Nyarubuye, Rusumo and Mirenge of Kibungo Province, and in pockets in central and southern-eastern Umutara Province, food insecurity had also worsened due to unseasonably dry conditions, FEWS NET said. It added that the government of Rwanda was trying to correct this problem, by providing emergency food supplies to the most affected areas and that the intervention bolstered the aid already provided through ongoing programmes such as the UN World Food Programme's school feeding, assistance to nutrition centres and Food for Work (FFW) activities. FEWS Net said that although rains resumed in the last week of November, giving hope for at least some harvest of beans and cultivation of more sweet potatoes, an estimated 300,000 people in central and eastern parts of the country could need food and non-food aid in the December 2003-June 2004 period. FEWS NET, UN agencies and NGOs active in the region are scheduled to conduct a joint crop assessment mission in January 2004 on the food security situation. FEWS NET is a USAID-funded activity that collaborates with international, national, and regional partners to provide early warning and vulnerability information on emerging or evolving food security issues. For further information, go to www.fews.net