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Niger: Food crisis in the eastern Sahel continues to spread.

By on April 29, 2010
The World Food Program is now expecting to feed more than 1.5 million people in next month’s general food distribution, along with specialized therapeutic feeding for 500,000 children under the age of six.

“The lean season normally starts in Niger towards June and July and lasts until September or October, which is the harvest time. But this year because of the bad harvest last year, the lean season started much earlier,” says Gianluca Ferrera, WFP’s deputy director for Niger.
Last year’s cereal harvest in Niger was 26 % below the previous year. Primary schools in the southern Zinder region are now closing, as families abandon the area and head toward the capital in search of food. Internally displaced, civilians are far harder to feed than those who stay at home, so relief officials are hoping farmers return to their fields once the rains begin.
WFP is trying to raise $182 million to scale up its operations in Niger. Although Ferrera says donor response has been good, it is not yet adequate. “We still have a huge shortfall estimated at around 50 million dollars, roughly 45,000 tons of food that are still necessary to meet the urgent needs of the population until September,” Ferrera adds.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation are also stepping in to aid cattle herders in Niger and Chad. Livestock pastures are dry, so herders are selling their animals at lower prices to buy food for their families.

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