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Conflicts, climate worsen food insecurity in many countries
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SME Times News Bureau | 21 Sep, 2018
Persistent conflicts and extreme weather are currently driving high
levels of severe food insecurity, particularly in Southern African and
Near East countries, which continue to require humanitarian assistance,
said a report issued on Thursday by the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation.
Some 39 countries, 31 of which are in Africa, seven
in Asia and one in the Caribbean (Haiti), are in need of external food
assistance -- unchanged from three months ago, according to the Crop
Prospects and Food Situation report.
FAO stresses that protracted
conflicts, extreme weather events and displacement continue hampering
food access for millions of vulnerable people.
Civil conflicts
and population displacement remain the key drivers of food insecurity in
East Africa and the Near East, whereas dry-weather conditions reduced
cereal outputs in Southern Africa, according to the report.
FAO's
latest forecast for global cereal production in 2018 is pegged at 2 587
million tonnes, a three-year low and 2.4 per cent below last year's
record high level.
Cereal production in the 52 Low-Income
Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) is projected this year at around 490
million tonnes, about 19 million above the past five-year average. The
unchanged aggregate output reflects weather-reduced outputs in Southern
Africa, Central Asia and the Near East that are foreseen to be offset by
production gains in Far East Asia and East Africa, said the report.
Civil
conflicts, often coupled with climate-related extreme events, have
taken their toll on food security of vulnerable populations in Central
African Republic, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen among others,
the report underlined.
In Yemen, due to the ongoing civil war, an
estimated 17,8 million people are food insecure and require urgent
humanitarian assistance, a five percent increase from 2017, the report
said.
In the Central African Republic, about 2 million people, or
43 per cent of the total population, are estimated to be in need of
urgent assistance for food due to the civil conflicts, several
consecutive years of reduced agricultural production and poorly
functioning markets, especially for displaced populations, host families
and returnees, fuelled by violent clashes and inter-communal tensions.
Poor
rains in Southern Africa at key cropping stages curbed this year's
cereal production, with the largest reductions reported in Malawi and
Zimbabwe. In Malawi, with this year's cereal output estimated to be
below average, the number of food insecure people in 2018 could more
than double from last year to reach 3.3 million people.
In
Zimbabwe, 2.4 million people are estimated to be food insecure in 2018
as a result of a reduced cereal output and food access constraints
stemming from low incomes and liquidity problems of vulnerable
households.
The Near East region has also suffered from
insufficient rains that have reduced cereal output particularly in
Afghanistan and Syria. In Syria, around 6.5 million people are estimated
to be short of food and another 4 million people are at risk of food
insecurity, according to the report.
Dry weather conditions in
South America have lowered cereal output in 2018 from last year's
record, particularly for maize. In Central America and the Caribbean,
unfavourable rains also curtailed this year's maize production, except
in Mexico, the report noted.
In Far East Asia, cereal production
in 2018 is forecast to rise, primarily reflecting gains in Bangladesh
and India, with the latter seeing a record wheat output this year due to
favourable weather conditions.
Similarly, in Bangladesh,
beneficial weather supported by prospects of remunerative prices
triggered an expansion in paddy plantings that drove up cereal
production in 2018, following reduced outputs last year.
And as a
result of beneficial weather, cereal harvests in East Africa are also
forecast to rebound from the reduced levels of 2017; however, torrential
rains earlier this year and more recently in August resulted in floods
causing localized crop losses.
The 39 countries currently in need
of external food assistance are: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi,
Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti,
Eritrea, Eswatini (former Swaziland), Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq,
Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania,
Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
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As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
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