Plague of locusts hits Africa

2004-12-21 09:14

Rome - Sub-Saharan Africa's record invasion of locusts backed by years of conflict has exacerbated the impacts of drought, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Monday, adding that it will likely spur a food crisis.

In its final report for 2004 on Africa, FAO noted that 23 countries on the world's poorest continent already face food shortages, and needed 3.1 million tonnes of grains and other staples to feed their populations over the last fiscal year.

Donors provided about 2.8 million tonnes to meet those needs and will be asked to increase contributions for next year, the FAO report said, because of the resulting production losses in north and west Africa due to the locust invasion, the worst in more than a decade, and the ongoing crisis in Sudan.

"In 2004-05 food aid needs are expected to increase in view of production shortfalls in several countries. However, the actual aid requirements will only be known once the ongoing harvests in eastern and western Africa are completed," FAO said in its report, published jointly with the UN's World Food Programme.

Cereal production in west Africa in 2004 was on target for the last five drought-stricken years, reaching 11.6 million tonnes for the region as a whole.

But the three years of devastating drought, followed by better-than-average rains that produced this year's bumper crop of ravenous locusts, weighed heavily on already meagre food stocks in countries such as Mauritania, the country worst-hit by the plague.

Cereal production plummeted by 44% in 2004 in the nation of 2.7 million people, FAO said.

Massive population movements due to conflict also negated any advances made in boosting food production or maintaining stable levels, the report said.

A November flare-up in tensions in Ivory Coast sent tens of thousands into Liberia, where one in six of its roughly three million people are already relying on food aid.

East Africa fared no better, with the refugee crisis in Sudan increasing to four million the number of needy people going without even a daily meal, according to the FAO report.

Kenya, which has enjoyed relative political stability, saw its crops wizen under mediocre rains in its pastoral north, and produced a paltry harvest of the maize that is the staple in the east African nation's diet. At least 2.7 million Kenyans will need food aid next year, FAO said.

Tensions in central Africa, involving the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, tiny Rwanda and the full-blown conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo only exacerbate already serious food shortages in the region and will require significant alimentary resources over the next 12 months.

Political imbroglios and economic hardships have already sent 40% of Zimbabwe's 12.6 million people into the bread lines for emergency food aid, as the prices for staples skyrocket and acres of once verdant agricultural land lie fallow.

- SAPA