Hunger and floods threaten Somalia - Oxfam

Women wade through floodwaters in Beletweyne, Hiran province in Somalia. October 2012. Photo supplied by the non-governmental organisation HARDO.

NAIROBI (AlertNet) – Worsening hunger, El Nino floods and a lack of long-term investments threaten to tip many Somalis back into crisis a year after famine swept the country, Oxfam said on Monday.

The warning comes despite signs that life is improving in Somalia's battle-scarred capital Mogadishu.

In a survey of over 1,800 households carried out by Oxfam in South Central Somalia and Puntland, 72 percent of respondents were worried they would not have enough to eat over the next four months and 42 percent said they were already skipping meals.

“If we don’t continue the humanitarian aid that is currently getting in, then we could actually fall off the edge of the cliff again,” said Ed Pomfret, Oxfam’s Somalia campaign manager.

Somalia was at the epicentre of a hunger crisis that devastated swathes of the Horn of Africa last year. But Pomfret said the world’s attention had now shifted to the Sahel food crisis and conflict in the Great Lakes region and the Sudans.

More aid is going into Mogadishu where the security situation has improved since African Union forces ousted the al Qaeda-affiliated militant group al Shabaab last year. It is now a bustling city where bullet-riddled houses are slowly being repaired and replaced.

But most of the aid is short term and agencies still find it difficult to work outside the capital.

Although African Union forces and the Ethiopian military have pushed al Shabaab out of most major towns – taking the militia’s last stronghold, the port city of Kismayu, last month – the countryside is still largely under al Shabaab’s control.

Aid agencies have to negotiate access with various militias on the ground on a case-by-case basis.

“PRETTY NASTY SCENARIO”

Some two million Somalis out of a population of nine million are receiving emergency assistance, down from a peak of four million during the famine last year.

People are going hungry again because of poor Gu rains during April to June, the main planting season. Many families have exhausted their food stocks and are now reliant on buying imported grains from the market.

Failed harvests in India and the United States are expected to push up world food prices.

In addition, there are predictions that the next rains – which have started in parts of the country – will be very heavy due to El Nino conditions.

El Nino is a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific that occurs every four to 12 years, bringing above average rains to East Africa. It is the opposite of the very closely related La Nina pattern, which caused last year’s East African drought.

“Too much rain is very bad in terms of your ability to grow crops as well as the immediate impact of flooding,” said Roger Middleton, Oxfam’s policy and advocacy lead for Somalia.

Last week, severe flooding in Beletweyne in Hiran Province killed at least 10 people and displaced 8,000 families. Further floods are predicted in parts of Middle and Lower Shabelle and Middle Juba.

“If you combine a failed [Gu] harvest, too much rain which potentially washes away your fields… and then potentially rising global food prices, that’s a pretty nasty scenario,” said Middleton.

“THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN EVERY YEAR”

Somalia has been mired in conflict since the overthrow of dictator Siad Barre in 1991, with numerous cycles of war and drought leading to recurrent humanitarian crises.

In January, a report by Oxfam and Save the Children found that humanitarian actors were too slow to respond to early warnings of famine due to donor fatigue and risk aversion.

“There’s fear of investing in Somalia just because of the instability and just because of 20 years of being labelled as a failed state,” said Pomfret.

“But if we don’t do that, this is going to keep happening and this is going to happen every year.”

Oxfam said aid agencies urgently need to invest in resilience programmes to help people cope with shocks, like droughts and floods. These include projects like cash for environmental work like tree planting, restocking of animals and rehabilitation of canals to provide water for irrigation as well as training young people to earn a living.

“It’s not okay to just keep putting a sticking plaster on this,” said Pomfret.

A clear illustration of the lack of investment in long-term development is the extremely high rate of maternal mortality. The survey showed over 60 percent of reported adult deaths were due to pregnancy-related complications.

Fatuma Abdirahman, Oxfam’s humanitarian programme manager for Somalia, said it is hard to get funding for maternal health programmes because they are seen as developmental and people tend to focus on humanitarian programming in Somalia.

“It is kind of scandalous where you have something that is so preventable,” she said.

- AlertNet

Floods threaten Niger's main rice crop - minister

NIAMEY, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Floods could wipe out most of Niger's main rice harvest this year as rain-swollen rivers rose to 50-year highs across West Africa, spreading devastation, a regional official said.

At least 81 people have been killed in Niger since annual rains caused flooding along the banks of the Niger River, raising its waters to their highest levels since the 1920s. The country and surrounding region are still struggling to overcome food shortages caused by poor rains last year.

"In Niger ... most of the rainy season rice crop, estimated at over 80,000 tonnes, risks being destroyed this year," Tiena Coulibaly, a Malian government minister told Niger's state television.

Coulibaly was speaking after chairing a meeting of ministers in Niamey focused on tackling food shortages and increasing production. The comments were broadcast on Friday after a meeting on Thursday.

The European Union, one of Niger's major donors said in a statement later on Friday that it has disbursed 19,678 billion CFA francs or 30 million euros ($39.44 billion) as part of a budgetary assistance measure, to help the country guarantee food security this year.

EU's delegation in Niamey said in a statement that the funding, following a earlier 10 million euros disbursed in June, will go towards buying cereals to be resold at affordable prices, distributed freely or replenish the country's stocks.

Niger, a country with high population growth that lies just south of the Sahara, produces about 130,000 tonnes of rice a year, with a dry season crop harvest bringing in about 50,000 tonnes.

Another 200,000-300,000 tonnes are imported to fill the gap in rising demand. About 18 million people across an arid strip of nations stretching from Senegal in the west to Chad in the east faced a food and nutrition crisis after last year's poor rains, the latest in a cycle of shortages to strike the zone.

- AlertNet

US drought deepens worries about food supplies, prices

Corn plants struggle to survive on the drought-stricken land of farmer Scott Keach who owns 2500 acre Keach Farm in Henderson, Kentucky. Image by: JOHN SOMMERS II / REUTERS

Alarm is growing over the US' unrelenting midwest drought as corporate leaders warn of a spike in food prices.

Worries about the worst drought in more than half a century afflicting the world’s largest grain exporter also deepened overseas, where buyers in China and other hungry nations fret that the expected sharp drop in US harvests will cause shortages and price spikes.

Greg Page, chief executive of global grains trading giant Cargill Inc, joined a chorus of critics of biofuels by urging the US government to temporarily curb its quotas to produce corn-based ethanol fuel.

Page said on CNBC that the US biofuel mandate “needs to be addressed” through existing policy tools. Otherwise, the spike in US corn and soybean prices to record highs will “ration” demand in ways that will hurt food production too much.

“If all of that is only on livestock or food consumers, it really makes the burden disproportionate. What we see are 3 or 4% declines in supply lead to 40 to 50% increases in prices, and I think the mandates are what drives that,” he said.

In 2011, almost 40% of the giant US corn crop went into making ethanol, and the United States still exported more than half of all corn shipments worldwide.

“There is a methodology to reduce the amount of biofuels that is mandated in the U.S,” Page said.

The US Agriculture Department last week raised its estimates of food price inflation due to soaring grain prices tied to the drought, saying prices could rise as much as 3,5% this year and another 3-4% in 2013, led by meat.

On Monday, US livestock groups appealed to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to curb or suspend the mandate, warning against the ruinous impact of soaring feed costs. Corn and soybean meal make up basic animal feedstuffs.

Page said the shortfall in supply would be “manageable” provided that consumers ration their use, that producers don’t impose export constraints and importers don’t embark on a panicked buying spree, as some did in 2008 — a beggar-thy-neighbor approach widely seen to have worsened the price spike.

“We need thoughtful responses from governments. We need to be sure free trade remains. In past periods of shortage of crops, we’ve had embargoes, which have exacerbated peoples’ supply concerns and caused people to take actions that were not helpful to global aggregate food security,” he said.

Crop outlook worsens

Grain analysts polled by Reuters pointed to a US corn crop of 11,2 billion bushels, the smallest in six years and down 14% from USDA’s latest forecast of 12,97 billion. Initial forecasts were for a crop of more than 14 billion bushels.

Soybeans, which were planted later and until now escaped the drought’s pressure, are now also being hurt. Analysts predict a 2,834 billion bushel harvest, the smallest in four years, and down from USDA’s latest estimate of 3,05 billion bushels.

The drought is hitting other food producers besides Cargill.

Oilseed processor and ethanol producer Archer Daniels Midland Inc reported a larger than expected 25% drop in quarterly profit on Tuesday due in part to higher corn prices causing it to lose money making ethanol.

“In a challenging fourth quarter, solid results from our global oilseeds business, particularly in South America, were more than offset by negative US ethanol margins and weaker US merchandising results.” ADM CEO Patricia Woertz said.

Brokerage BB&T Capital Markets last week lowered its earnings forecasts for US pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc and US chicken producer Sanderson Farms Inc, citing corn prices.

But some said that easing off ethanol production — already at a two-year low amid soaring corn prices — was unnecessary.

In Iowa, the largest US corn and soybean producer, Gov. Terry Branstad said on Tuesday he opposed an ethanol waiver.

“Even if you took that kind of action, it probably would have no action on soybean and corn prices,” Branstad said.

Ray Bardole of Rippey, Iowa, a soybean farmer and industry official now touring China, told reporters by phone that he has been reassuring the worried Chinese, who are the biggest importers of US soybeans.

“As we have met with folks from the government, as well as the Chinese media and our customers themselves, that is absolutely the very top thing on their mind,” he said. “’What is the dry weather going to do to our supply?’”

At the Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybean markets eased back from new record highs this week as traders took their profits. Even with Tuesday’s drop, corn prices are up 20% in July to post the biggest two-month rally since the last major drought in 1988.

December corn futures closed down 1,1% at $8,05-1/4 per bushel and November soybeans closed down 0,2% at $16,41 per bushel.

“We are continuing to see a deterioration of the crops,” grains analyst Karl Setzer of MaxYield Cooperative in West Bend, Iowa said, referring to the US Department of Agriculture’s crop progress report issued on Monday.

That report said 24% of the domestic corn crop was in good-to-excellent condition as of Sunday, down from 26% the previous week. That was a tad better than trade expectations for a three-point drop.

The soybean crop was 29% in that category, down from 31% in the previous week.

Those ratings were the worst for those crops since the last major drought in 1988.

- TIMES LIVE

Midwest crops, fish, water supply punished by drought

(Reuters) - Temperatures heading north of 100 degrees Fahrenheit and scarce rain portended another blistering weekend for much of the U.S. Midwest, where the most extensive drought since 1956 is devastating crops, evaporating rivers, and threatening to push world food prices higher.

Violent storms brought rain to the extreme eastern portions of the corn belt in Ohio on Thursday night, but moisture was sparse further west.

The mercury soared in Missouri, where St. Louis was expected to reach 101 degrees F (38 Celsius) on Friday. Drought is afflicting nearly all of east-central Missouri, central and western Illinois and much of Iowa, all major corn and soybean producing states.

Farther west in Kansas City, temperatures were expected to move back over 100 degrees on Sunday as residents looked for ways to conserve water.

In Missouri, more than 600 farmers have applied for state funds to drill new wells, deepen existing wells or expand irrigation systems under a program for livestock and crop farmers severely hit by drought, Governor Jay Nixon said.

In Kansas, Governor Sam Brownback objected to federal officials releasing water from three Kansas reservoirs to keep the Missouri River navigable and protect endangered birds. A spokesperson said Brownback preferred to keep the reservoirs as high as possible to conserve water for farmers and communities drawing from them.

A year ago, the Missouri River flooded parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, tearing up levees and roads and inundating fields.

After flooding last year, the Mississippi River is now so low that barge operators must lighten loads to avoid getting stuck.

FISH DYING, FOWL MAY BE NEXT

Extreme conditions are killing fish by the thousands in lakes and rivers and could pose a problem for migrating ducks and other waterfowl if the drought stretches into the fall, officials said.

Nationwide, fishing losses could run from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars depending on how long the drought lasts and how widespread it is, said Dan Stephenson, an Illinois state fisheries biologist.

Damage to corn, soybean and wheat crops is expected to push food prices higher in the United States and around the world. The United States is the world's largest exporter of corn, soybeans and wheat.

At the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday, corn for September delivery was up 2.2 percent, August soybeans up 1.7 percent and September wheat up about 1.6 percent.

Over the next week, soaring temperatures and little rain were in store for crops in most of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, said Don Keeney, an MDA EarthSat Weather meteorologist.

"Crops will continue to deteriorate. The corn crop is already gone. and in the north and east, beans will improve some but not in the southwest," Keeney said.

Showers and cooler temperatures were expected to bring some relief to eastern parts of the Midwest on Friday, and on Saturday and Sunday in the northwest part of the region, Keeney said.

Farmers planted corn and soybeans earlier than usual this year after a warmer than normal winter, but conditions have rapidly deteriorated.

Trade sources said on Friday that Informa Economics had cut its estimate for 2012 U.S. corn yields per acre and production and its projection for U.S. soybean yields per acre and overall production.

Corn yield prospects in central and northeast Iowa were highly variable, scouts on a U.S. Midwest crop tour said.

Some plants have withered and died in the worst drought in 56 years, some have thin stalks and small ears, and others are mostly green, but visibly stressed.

All of Iowa was in severe drought or worse, according to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor for the week ending July 24 issued by climatologists, and almost 30 percent of the nine-state Midwest was suffering extreme drought.

- Reuters

Drought worsens despite rains in Midwest

(Reuters) - The most extensive drought in five decades intensified this week across the U.S. Midwest and Plains states that produce most of the county's corn, soybeans and livestock, a report from climate experts showed on Thursday.

Almost 30 percent of the nine-state Midwest was suffering extreme drought, nearly triple from the previous week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor for the week ending July 24.

Conditions in the Midwest, which produces roughly three quarters of the corn and soybean crops in the world's largest producer and exporter, worsened despite the first measurable rainfall in a month in some areas.

More than 53 percent of the United States and Puerto Rico are in moderate drought or worse, a record-large amount for the fourth straight week in the Drought Monitor's 12-year history.

"The 2-plus inches (of rain) from southern Wisconsin to northern Indiana was able to only maintain status quo. Most other areas were not as lucky," said Drought Monitor author Richard Heim of the National Climatic Data Center.

"Pasture, rangeland, and crop condition continued to deteriorate from the Colorado High Plains to the Ohio and mid-Mississippi valleys, and from Oklahoma to the Dakotas," he said.

More than half of the country's pastures have been rated poor or very poor by the U.S. Agriculture Department, while the corn and soybean crops have wilted under scorching temperatures during their more vulnerable periods of pollination.

A Reuters poll this week estimated the U.S. corn yield at 130.8 bushels per acre, the lowest in 10 years.

"This drought is two-pronged," Fuchs said. "Not only the dryness but the heat is playing a big and important role. Even areas that have picked up rain are still suffering because of the heat."

Light showers overnight in the southwestern Midwest were too little too late to prevent further losses in the crops, while heat of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) or higher was forecast to continue into next week, Andy Karst, meteorologist for World Weather Inc, said Thursday.

- Reuters

- Reuters

Horn of Africa still in crisis; more funds needed to deliver life-saving aid

More than 9 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in the Horn of Africa where late and erratic rains have brought only partial relief to a region that was gripped by drought and famine a year ago.

“We’ve seen some improvement in the region because of humanitarian efforts but unless we continue with our response, any gains made since last year’s emergency could be wiped out because of continued drought and increasing food prices,” says David Orth-Moore, CRS’ regional director for East Africa. “Millions still need our assistance.”

Fews Net, USAID’s Famine Early Warning System, warns that many parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia will face food shortages in the coming months.

“We have received a great number of donations since the emergency peaked last July but more is needed to ensure that those affected don’t slide back to the emergency levels we saw in 2011,” Orth-Moore said, noting that CRS needs an additional $10 million over the next three years to help people affected by this food crisis. The problem is most acute in Somalia where thousands have been displaced due to drought and ongoing conflict.

CRS mounted an emergency response in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia in July last year, bringing critical assistance such as food, water and sanitation services to millions of people in need, including hundreds of thousands who fled Somalia’s famine to neighboring Kenya. Today, CRS continues to implement programs that help people regain their livelihoods and make them more resilient to future drought.

In Somalia, CRS has worked with local partners to provide health and nutrition services for displaced families, and is helping others to start small businesses so they will be better prepared for future droughts. In Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp, CRS has installed latrines and provided sanitation services and training to thousands of Somalis, while at the same time helping host communities that face the same problems recover their livelihoods. In Ethiopia, CRS has fed hundreds of thousands, and continues its critical work in watershed management to alleviate the effects of drought.

“Since the drought of 2011, CRS has continued to work in many of the affected communities to build resilience, working with farmers in improved crop techniques, in saving soil as well as in natural resource management,” Orth-Moore says. “The droughts in East Africa are becoming more frequent so we’re just working as hard as we can right now, in as many communities as we have funding for, to help people prepare.”

Earlier this month, seven aid agencies, including CRS, warned of a funding shortfall in Kenya’s Dadaab camp, the world’s largest refugee camp. The agencies warned that at least 200,000 people in the camp will face deteriorating conditions if $25 million isn’t raised.

For more information, contact Kim Pozniak at kim.pozniak@crs.org or 410-951-7281.

- ReliefWeb

Children dying at alarming rate in S. Sudan camp - MSF

NAIROBI (AlertNet) – Almost nine children are dying every day in South Sudan’s Jammam refugee camp, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says, as fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile State continues to drive thousands over the border.

Heavy rains have flooded most of the camp where 35,000 people have sought refuge.

“Many camp residents, including children, sleep in wet clothes under soaked blankets, leaving them vulnerable to hypothermia,” MSF said in a statement.

“The latrines have overflowed, contaminating standing water, which is not fit for human consumption.”

Jammam is one of three camps set up to accommodate over 110,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled into South Sudan’s remote Upper Nile State since conflict broke out between the government and rebels in Blue Nile in September.

The child mortality rate in Jammam is 2.8 per 10,000 per day - well above the emergency threshold of one death per 10,000 people per day. Two-thirds of deaths are due to diarrhoea.

With the onset of the rainy season, increasing numbers of people are falling ill with young children at greatest risk.

“Our clinic is already filled with children suffering from pneumonia, diarrhoea and malnutrition,” said Erna Rijnierse who is working with MSF in Jammam.

“If they stay in these sorts of conditions, there could well be profoundly distressing consequences.”

Over the last two weeks, MSF medical teams in Jammam have treated at least 2,500 people for diarrheal diseases, respiratory diseases, malaria, and malnutrition.

“These people have fled terrible violence in Sudan and lost family members during their arduous journeys for safety, and now they are sitting exposed in refugee camps on a flood plain and dying from preventable diseases due to horrific living conditions,” MSF’s emergency coordinator in Jammam, Tara Newell, said in the statement.

“HORRIFIC LIVING CONDITIONS”

Ironically, there is a chronic shortage of clean water in flooded Jammam camp, despite efforts to drill for water.

Humanitarian agencies have been planning to relocate the refugees to Yusuf Batil, a new site with more water which opened at the end of May.

But the continuing influx of exhausted, hungry and dehydrated new arrivals from Sudan has delayed this.

Some 35,000 refugees have crossed the border in the last few weeks, according to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

The agency said recently that those arriving at Elfoj – a transit site less than 10km (6 miles) from the border - were in poor physical condition with MSF reporting a number of deaths.

As the Elfoj area has been bombed in the past, moving the new arrivals to safety at Yusuf Batil has taken priority over relocating refugees from Jammam.

MALNUTRITION “ALARMINGLY HIGH”

But the situation is also dire in Yusuf Batil where the population has surged from 6,000 to 35,000 in the last few days.

The global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate is an "alarmingly high" 15.3 percent, according to International Medical Corps (IMC). GAM is used as an indicator of the severity of a humanitarian crisis. The emergency threshold is 15 percent.

Refugees are malnourished because of food shortages back home. The government has severely restricted aid to rebel-held areas in its two war-torn border states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) estimates up to 150,000 people in rebel-held Blue Nile and up to 250,000 people in rebel-held South Kordofan face crisis due to emergency levels of food insecurity. These are levels three and four on the scale of hunger, with famine at level five.

In government-held South Kordofan, 800 children are being treated for severe acute malnutrition in feeding centres each month, according to the U.N. children’s fund’s (UNICEF).

Severe acute malnutrition is more serious than global acute malnutrition as children risk death without emergency treatment.

The 30 feeding centres are run by Sudan’s ministry of health with the support of UNICEF, Save the Children Sweden, Concern and Al-Manar, a local organisation.

The latest malnutrition figures (GAM) for these two states date back to 2010, before the conflict started. They are 17.4 percent in South Kordofan and 16.2 percent in Blue Nile.

- AlertNet

Flash Flood in Uganda on Friday, 01 June, 2012 at 15:28 (03:28 PM) UTC.

As the world is set to mark World Environment Day on June 5, farmers in the remote village of Doho in the eastern Ugandan district of Butaleja are paying a heavy price as a result of harsh climate change effects. Flash floods have left many families homeless, gardens submerged and roads destroyed. Affected areas include Doho-Kholi and Doho-Habra in Mazimasa sub-county, and Namehere, where more than 1,000 hectares of food crops, mainly rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, beans, maize, as well as numerous houses, have been destroyed. The floods are as a result of intermittent rains uphill forcing rivers downhill to bust their banks ferociously sweeping away everything a long their way. The heavy rains according to environmental experts are a result of the now unpredictable rainy seasons which they attribute to climate change. Isaac Malinga, who has been a farmer for over two decades, told Xinhua that he is back to square one as the floods have destroyed all his crops. He said what makes it had is he can now not afford to pay tuition fees for his children who are now back at school following the opening of a new school term.

“This season is a loss and we are now planning for the next. Previously around this time of the year we would be harvesting but at the moment there is almost nothing. We have now resorted to buying everything including food,” he as he pondered the next move. For Abu Walubusya another farmer on the same village as Malinga, the floods have struck him to the bare. As he spoken to Xinhua in his flood cassava and rice gardens, he wondered how he is going to take care of the 20 children in his household. “The floods have affected me so much. The water has destroyed all my crops yet I have many children to look after; they now sleep hungry. We urgently need help so that this water can be diverted away from our gardens,” he said. “My children are hungry, I have come here to find food but see all crops have been destroyed yet I have got many other responsibilities like school fees. It is here that I earn a living but all is gone,” he added. According to the villagers here, they used not to have such floods but now each and every year the situation gets worse. Climate change is a real concern, planting trees will help mitigate the effects of climate change,” said Muruli Mukasa, minister in charge of the presidency.

- RSOE EDIS

Africa must stop begging for food - UN

Nairobi - Sub-Saharan African nations will not be able to sustain their accelerated economic growth unless they eliminate hunger, the UN said in a report on Tuesday.

Many sub-Saharan economies are growing fast but the growth rates have not translated into significant hunger reduction, said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark.

Sub-Saharan Africa's growth, this year expected to be more than 5%, is accelerating faster than the rest of the world excluding China and India, according to UNDP statistics.

According to the agency's African Development Report, nearly 218 million people on the continent are undernourished and 55 million children are malnourished, a figure that is projected to rise.

The report says food security can be achieved by several means, including boosting agricultural productivity and creating resilience against natural disasters.

Tegegnework Gettu, an assistant secretary-general and regional director for the UNDP bureau in Africa, said chronic food security in sub-Saharan Africa stems from decades of poor governance.

"Regimes bent on amassing wealth absorbed the region's resources into patrimonial power structures," he said. "Self-serving elite quick to profit from graft and patronage have stood between the leaders and the people, monopolised state revenues and emptied the countryside, but they have provided neither employment nor industry."

He said Africa has the knowledge, the technology and the means to end hunger and food insecurity but lacks the political will and dedication.

"Africa must stop begging for food. That is an affront to both its dignity and its potential," he said. "If some African countries can acquire and deploy jet fighters, tanks, artillery and other means of destruction, why should they not be able to master agricultural know-how? Why should African be unable to afford technology, tractors, irrigation, seed varieties and training needed to be food secure?"

Food insecurity

The UK estimates that between 50 000 and 100 000 people died in last year's famine in Somalia and drought in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Djibouti.

More than 15 million people are currently at risk of hunger in a zone that includes some of the poorest countries in the world: Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso, as well as parts of northern Senegal, northern Nigeria and Cameroon.

Gettu said the international community is also responsible for food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Developed countries maintain agricultural subsidies that benefit their producers while pushing sub-Saharan Africa's impoverished small-holder farmers to the margins, he said.

Similar sentiments were echoed by local analysts.

Economist James Shikwati, who heads the Kenyan economic think tank the Inter Region Economic Network, said in the existing global trade system which is valued at $36 trillion, Africa only contributes 3%.

"If the UN really wanted to help African farmers, the point would be to leverage on the indigenous crops and foods in Africa and have them access global markets so that farmers can also tap in to this $36 trillion global trade system." Shikwati said.

- AP/News24

HORN OF AFRICA: Greater food insecurity forecast

NAIROBI, 5 April 2012 (IRIN) - Food insecurity in the eastern Horn of Africa is expected to worsen as a result of less rain than previously forecast falling in the key March-to-May season.

The US Agency for International Development’s Famine and Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) warned that rainfall in this period would be 60-85 percent of the long-term average and that there was a 30 percent chance of the lower figure materializing.

“An expansion in the size of the food insecure population and an increase in the severity of food insecurity is likely,” FEWS NET said in an 3 April report.

The report warned of “significant impacts on crop production, pasture regeneration, and the replenishment of water resources” in a region that in 2011 suffered one of its worst drought-related food crises in decades.

March to May is the major rainfall season for pastoral and agricultural areas of northern Kenya and Ethiopia and parts of Somalia, and accounts for 50-60 percent of annual rainfall in the region.

In an effort to prevent future weather shocks translating into new humanitarian crises, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional body, and international development partners, have launched an initiative to strengthen resilience in the region.

“We have mobilized funds [US$340 million] to support resilience programmes, and while the problems cannot be solved overnight, it is important to appreciate the need for long-term investments in such areas as education, water, and the need to identify problems early and deal with them in good time. People need to be helped to recover quickly from disasters,” Kristalina Georgieva, European commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response, told IRIN.

Political commitment from IGAD member countries, apart from development partners’ support, will play a crucial role in creating sustainable solutions to help people cope with the effects of the region’s recurrent droughts, according to Sileshi Getahun, Ethiopia’s minister of agriculture, in whose country some 3.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Time to “stand up and be counted”

“We [regional governments] can’t talk about the same thing [drought] over and over and yet do nothing to help people. This is the time for regional governments to stand up and be counted,” Sileshi said.

Speaking to IRIN, the UK’s development minister, Stephen O’Brien, said: “Resilience programme support is an important part of humanitarian support and response and provides a more sustainable way to deal with disasters.”

Among things to be prioritized will be the provision of drought-resistant seeds, water, education, investing in weather forecasting technology, and scaling up nutrition programmes.

Solving the various conflicts in the Horn of Africa, which have seen thousands of people displaced and many more killed, will be crucial in improving the ability of people in the region to be resilient in the face of disasters, Mahboub Maalim, executive secretary of IGAD, told IRIN.

“In the face of disasters like drought and famine, people’s livelihoods are disrupted and efforts towards halting the various conflicts we see [in the Horn of Africa] cannot be ignored, because people can’t cope when conflicts persist,” he said.

- IRIN