Up to 90 percent crops lost in north, food crisis feared

People in northern Burkina Faso are facing a looming food crisis, with the annual grain harvest slashed up to 90 percent due to a severe locust outbreak combined with poor rains. "Rains this year were patchy. We only needed two or three more showers at the end of the season, but nature decided differently and now the granaries are empty," farmer Albert Seini told IRIN in the far northern town of Gorom-Gorom, the capital of Oudalan province which borders Mali and Niger. "Failing help from the government, this is going to be an extremely difficult year," said the farmer, pointing to his empty granary and bare millet-fields as his 11 children and three wives looked on. The province, which has a population of 161,000, is the area which has been hardest hit by the worst locust outbreak in Burkina Faso in 15 years, as well as by poor rains. Residents of the arid province make a living from both farming and cattle-herding, but even in a good year output of the main cereals - millet, sorghum, corn and rice – are structurally below need. Burkina Faso last August saw the arrival of swarms of mature locusts that infested more than 100,000 hectares, severely damaging crops and pasture, said Mamadou Coulibaly, coordinator of the country’s plant protection department. At the agriculture ministry, the head of the forecast and statistics office Mahama Zoungrana, said: "The Oudalan this year recorded a catastrophic 90 per cent drop in the grain harvest, while (the neighbouring provinces of) Seno and Soum respectively registered a 78 and a 74 percent drop." Last year’s Oudalan grain harvest amounted to 58,419 tons, but this year the province is expected to produce only 5,642 tons, according to agriculture ministry statistics. The four Sahel provinces (Oudalan, Seno, Soum and Yagha) in 2003 saw an exceptional harvest totalling 248,261 tons but in 2004 are forecast to produce 80,786 tons, meaning grain needs for the local population will be far from covered. "This year, only 15 percent of Oudalan’s needs will be covered, as opposed to 161 percent last year, and 129 percent in Seno and 125 percent in Soum," Zoungrana said. In this region where grain shortages are common, farmers tend to compensate when necessary with the sale of cattle, Zoungrana said. But this year has seen severe damage to pasture-land as well. "Because of the lack of rain, grazing land was affected and water supplies dried up, so people sold off cattle cheap to start moving herds south," Zoungrana said. "Cheap sale of cattle has triggered price reductions, while cereal rarity has led to price hikes," he added. Complaining about price increases, Issaka Ouattara, a teacher, said that "In July, I paid CFA 9,000 (US$15) for a 100kg bag of corn. Early November, when I went to the market the price of the same bag had risen to CFA 12.000 ($24). And it’s not even 2005 yet." Provincial authorities too are appealing for help. "Granaries are empty and we are nearing a food shortage this year," Lamoussa Lingani, the High Commissioner for the Sahel region, told IRIN. "The government must act quickly." He said the region had received 19 tons of food aid from the twinned town of Guerville in France, and that the Oudalan Development Programme had promised aid to the Villagers Land Management Committee that coordinates grass-roots development. "The government," he added, "is to supply 500,000 tons for the four provinces in the region." The supply of the cereals will prevent further price hikes, but is less than needed. At a meeting of agriculture experts in the Gambian capital of Banjul early November, the Inter-State Committee to Fight Drought in the Sahel (CILSS) said crop losses due to the locust outbreak across West Africa would cause limited and less than feared damage, barring Mauritania, where up to 50 percent of cereal production may be lost. But Zoungrana said the forecast was over-optimistic. "The CILSS referred to local losses only and could not have imagined that production would be hurt so severely in Burkina Faso. It’ll probably be the same picture in other countries affected (by poor rains and locusts)."