NGO predicts serious food shortages

Serious food shortages are expected in Tanzania over the next several months, the Roman Catholic relief organisation, Caritas, said on Thursday. "Insufficient rainfall has resulted in poor yields in many parts of the country," Caritas said, after making an assessment in mid-2005 on the effects of drought on households and livestock. "Crop failure was registered at about 80 percent in the districts of Ngorongoro and Karatu [in the north of the country]," it said. Caritas, a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organisations, said it correlated its research with information provided by the US government-funded Famine Early Warning System Network. In response to the expected shortage, Caritas says it had launched an appeal for nearly US $800,000 to provide food aid to 251,767 people as well as seeds to some 5,000 households. It said it planned to deliver the food and seed from December until the next harvest in mid-2006.