Poor rainfall reduces crop production

Poor rains since November have slashed crop harvests for Rwanda’s A season which runs from September 1998 through February 1999, according to a joint assessment team comprising representatives of the Rwandan Ministry of Agriculture, FAO, WFP and the EU. The team’s preliminary findings suggest that production will be about 15 percent lower than last year, with beans being the crop hardest hit while sweet potatoes were less affected. The shortfall in pulse production will probably result in a less balanced diet rather than a drastic reduction in calorie intake, the team said. “For the first semester of 1999, the food shortage is estimated at 158,000 tonnes cereals-equivalent,” FAO’s Emergency Coordinator for Agriculture in Rwanda Jean-Francois Gascon told IRIN. Commercial imports will cover 59,000 mt, while food aid will cover 52,000 mt, leaving a deficit of 47,000 mt cereals-equivalent. “The food situation is worst in the northwest and the southeast of the country,” Gascon added. Melashed crop harvests for Rwanda’s A season which runs from d in its latest bulletin that due to improved security in December, there are now fewer IDPs in the north-western prefectures of Gisenyi and Ruhengeri. The government is phasing out IDP camps and has resettled about half the displaced near their former lands by establishing smaller sites designed for 20 to 150 families. WFP is providing food to the displaced, but other programmes needed to support resettlement have not been fully established. Catholic Relief Services and World Vision International are helping to supply agricultural inputs, but a greater effort will be required to reinsert resettled people into the agricultural economy. FEWS said seeds may also need to be distributed in Butare and Gikongoro, given the likely impact of the current rainfall deficit on harvests in these southern prefectures.