Rwanda: Food prices at lowest post-war level

Food prices in Rwanda are at their lowest post-war level, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET), a US Agency for International Development activity, reported on Friday.

Exceptionally abundant rainfall has translated into a substantial increase in the production of sweet potatoes, cassava and cooking bananas, causing a decline in prices, the agency stated.

At the end of 2001, prices for sweet potatoes, manioc, bananas and beans were respectively 50 percent, 68 percent, 61 percent and 29 percent lower than in December 2000. This despite a reduction in bean production in the prefectures of Gikongoro, Kibuye and Butare due to heavy rains. Farmers in Rwanda are now complaining of a quasi-saturation of local and regional markets, with prices so low that they are unable to buy basic necessities and thereby lift themselves out of poverty, FEWS Net reported.

FEWS has advised nongovernmental agencies to help households facing food problems in a finely targeted manner in order to prevent further food-price drops.

"Assistance to vulnerable households should now be provided in the following order of preference: cash-for-work in labour-intensive public work schemes, food-for-work, and, in rare cases, free food distribution," the agency stated.

Humanitarian agencies should now stockpile as much food as possible and, if permitted, buy on local markets in case they need to replenish stocks, FEWS NET added.