Serra Leone is among 41 countries in the world which still need external assistance for food, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said in a new report.
The Crop Prospects and Food Situation report released last Thursday points at conflicts and dry weather conditions as the primary causes of high levels of severe food insecurity which has hampered food availability and access for millions of people across these countries.
Majority of the countries in need of external support – 31 - are in Africa. Sierra Leone’s neighbors Liberia and Guinea are part of the list that also include Senegal and Nigeria in West Africa.
In the east end of the continent regional powerhouse Kenya and its neighbors Uganda and Burundi are also part of the list.
Outside the continent there is Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Venezuela, and Yemen.
Rainfall deficits
While in some of these countries the situation has been caused by a combination of conflicts and poor weather condition, as in Nigeria, South Sudan and Afghanistan, in other countries it is just bad weather conditions, like in Sierra Leone.
In the lager West Africa, despite the timely start of seasonal rains, prospects for the 2019 cereal output remain uncertain, the report notes. It says the latest weather forecast for the entire rainy season (June-October) across the Sahel and Soudanian zones points to below-average rainfall and further indicates likely spells of prolonged dry periods and an early cessation of rains in coastal areas.
“In addition to unfavourable weather forecasts, heightened tensions and ongoing conflicts in northeast Nigeria, the Great Lake Chad Basin, northern and central Mali, northeastern Burkina Faso and western Niger, have increasingly limited access to farmland and hampered agricultural activities, with negative effects on the planted area and yield prospects,” it says.
“Overall, the 2019 subregional grain output is forecast at 68 million tonnes, down from the 2018 record but still above the five-year average.”
The report says while the aggregate number of food insecure people in need of urgent assistance in the sub region declined for the second consecutive year, 4.8 million people (between March and May 2019), down from 7.2 million the same period in 2018, the number of food insecure is however expected to rise to 9.6 million people in the June-August 2019 period if appropriate measures and responses are not implemented.
“In several countries, food insecurity, however, remains a major concern due to persisting civil insecurity and armed banditry, which continue to disrupt markets and households’ main livelihood activities and caused significant displacement of people,” it states.
According to the report, cyclone damage and rainfall deficits in 2019 caused significant agricultural production shortfalls in Southern Africa, resulting in substantial increases in cereal import needs. Countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia experienced decline in harvests for a second consecutive year, while neighboring countries like Mozambique also registered production cuts due to unfavorable weather.
“Food insecurity in Zimbabwe is likely to worsen considerably in 2019, exacerbated by large spikes in staple food prices and the economic downturn. At the start of 2019, already about 3 million people in the country were considered to be food insecure,” the report reads.
In East Africa, severe dryness negatively affected first season harvests and led to a degradation of rangeland conditions, the report says, predicting the “largest year-on-year cereal production decrease” in 2019 for Kenya, Somalia and the Sudan, where harvests are anticipated at below-average levels.
© 2019 Politico Online
