6.7 million Sudanese need food despite good harvest – UN report
Feb 17, 2006 (ROME) — The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and
the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today that while Sudan
was likely to reap a reasonably good harvest in 2005-2006, almost seven
million people would still require food aid over the coming year.
Most of the needy have either been forced to flee their homes by fighting
or are in the process of returning home following the 2005 Comprehensive
Peace Agreement. Moreover, vulnerable households will for the most part be
unable to benefit from the harvest due to the currently prevailing high
cereal prices.
The FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission, carried out late last
year, found that Sudan’s overall cereal production in 2005/06 amounted to
about 5.3 million tonnes, 55 percent higher than the very poor 2004/05
harvest and 17 percent above the average of the previous five years.
Favourable rainfall over most of the country, low incidence of pests and
diseases, improved security in southern Sudan and slightly improved
security in Darfur at planting time starting last May resulted in an
increased area of cultivation. The total area of cultivated land across the
country was 57 percent above that of last year.
“This is a heartening picture compared to previous years and the people of
Sudan need all the help they can get, particularly from nature. But many
also need the help of the international community, especially in the
troubled region of Darfur and in southern Sudan, which is just beginning to
recover from more than 20 years of civil war,” said WFP Country Director
Ramiro Lopes da Silva.
Despite the estimated above average crop, the mission found that some 6.7
million people require about 800 000 tonnes of targeted food assistance in
2006. These beneficiaries include more than two million internally
displaced persons (IDPs), about 900 000 returnees and close to 3.5 million
highly vulnerable people in Darfur, southern Sudan and marginal areas of
central and eastern parts of the country.
Unequal income distribution, problems of physical and financial access to
food due to war, displacement, and poor infrastructure, a weak marketing
system and economic isolation are some of the main factors behind the food
insecurity of millions of people and their exposure to destitution, hunger
and malnutrition.
The assessment also found that, in 2005, the timely provision of
appropriate seeds and tools by FAO and other humanitarian agencies
benefited a large number of needy farmers. A WFP road rehabilitation
project in the south has increased trade, especially between Uganda and the
state of Central Equatoria, and between Kenya and the state of Eastern
Equatoria. But attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army in the south/southeast
remain a constant threat to any return to normal living and some key roads
remain impassable thereby inhibiting large-scale trade.
WFP plans to mobilize and distribute 731 000 tonnes of food to more than
six million people across Sudan in 2006. In addition to general food
distribution, assistance will be provided through support to recovery
activities and therapeutic and supplementary feeding projects to ensure
that the most vulnerable are reached.
FAO recently appealed for $40 million to support its agricultural relief
and recovery activities throughout the country in 2006, which include the
distribution of seeds and tools, fishing equipment and livestock medicines
to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable families, particularly returnees and
internally displaced persons.
“Timely assistance to the agricultural sector, including emergency support
to returnees and other vulnerable farming communities before the start of
the next cropping season in April/May in southern Sudan and June/July in
northern Sudan, is urgently required,” said Henri Josserand, Chief of FAO’s
Global Information and Early Warning System.
— On the net:
FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to Sudan http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/008/J7072e/J7072e00.htm
(ST)