Mixed food security outlook

Harvest prospects are generally favourable in coastal Western Africa, but fighting in Guinea and Sierra Leone affected farming and marketing, caused new displacements and hampered relief programmes, the FAO notes in its 'Food crops and Shortages' report for March 2001. Liberia also produced less than it could: last year's paddy production was estimated at 144,000 mt, as against a pre-war output of 259,000 mt (1988), according to the report, produced by the FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS). In the Sahelian countries, seasonably dry conditions prevail. Burkina Faso and Chad obtained below-average harvests, production was close to average in Mali, Mauritania and Niger, and above average in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, the report said. A record crop was harvested in The Gambia.