News
22.04.2010
AO steps up aid to Sahel pastoralists
FAO is stepping up aid to herders and pastoralists in Niger and Chad amid a growing food crisis caused by last year’s poor rains that have resulted in a steep decline in agricultural production and dried out livestock pastures. An estimated 9.8 million people are now vulnerable to severe hunger in the two countries, with thousands more under threat in the north of Burkina Faso and northeast Mali. UN and government surveys in most of the east Sahelian countries indicate a prevalence of global acute malnutrition higher than 16 percent. These rates exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) critical threshold. In addition, food prices remain high, making it even harder for poor farmers and pastoralists to buy food. «The situation in the region is very worrying indeed,» said Fatouma Seid, FAO Coordinator for West Africa. «Poor livestock herders are being forced to sell their only assets and an important source of nutrition, their animals, at discount prices in order to buy enough food for their families while farmers have no seeds to plant,» she said. «The priority for FAO is to get feed to animals and to supply farmers with the seeds for the June planting season». Cereal production in Niger in 2009 was 30 percent lower than in 2008, while production of cowpea, an important source of protein for the population, dropped by 37 percent. Emergency assistance is also needed to enable herders to feed their animals, which are suffering due to scare pastureland for them to feed on following an erratic rainy season. Almost 70 percent of livestock are at risk if they do not receive food soon.
