The inter-agency Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU) has reported that the current Deyr season has been unusual in the late arrival of significant rains in most areas. Where rains arrived late and failed to continue much into December, low crop yields and production can be expected at the harvest in January/February 2000. The Deyr season accounts for only 25% of annual cereal production and in marginal areas is used to provide fodder for animal consumption more than for human consumption. The most vulnerable groups in southern Somalia are the agro-pastoralists of Bakool, Gedo, Bay and Hiraan - as opposed to the pastoral and riverine groups in those regions. With low livestock numbers and small marginal, rainfed plots, their asset base is easily reduced by sustained conflict and successive poor seasons, FSAU reports. Irrigated and recession planting appear to make the Shabelle and Juba regions “relatively better off”.
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