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Drought warnings in Nigeria expose food security concerns in West Africa
Written by: George Fominyen
A man pushes a hand-cart along a street in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, August 4, 2009. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye
DAKAR (AlertNet)- An early warning by Nigeria on the prospect of drought in some of its northern states has raised concern about food security not only in Africa's most populous nation but also in other parts of West Africa. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) earlier this week issued its alert to help 11 out of Nigeria's 36 states take precautionary measures, such as giving farmers advice on planting, contingency stockpiling and networking among local institutions. "The farmers need to be educated on what they can plant now although there has been cessation of rainfall in some of these areas because there are some crops that can germinate within one or three months," NEMA spokesman Yushau Shuaib told AlertNet by telephone. Shuaib said the drought could start at the end of December or early January as rainfall had stopped in some parts of the country. The states likely to be affected include Sokoto, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Jigawa and Kano in the northwest and Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi and Adamawa States in the northeast, according to the NEMA Web site. Crop failure and food deficits in Nigeria could have a serious impact on the region because half of all the cereals produced by all 15 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) come from there. "If Nigeria has a deficit in cereals production it represents large quantities, and Nigeria in its search for food will probably draw from other countries," Claude Jibidar, deputy regional director of the World Food Programme for West Africa, told AlertNet in an interview before NEMA's warning. "That could represent a major food security risk for lots of countries in the region, starting with Niger not to mention Mali and even Mauritania," said Jibidar. In neighbouring Niger late, irregular and unequal distribution of rainfall has disrupted the country's mainly rain-fed agricultural production. This could create a significant shortfall in cereal production in several parts of the country, the Niger Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ANDDH) said in a statement. The situation in Niger, ranked bottom of the United Nations development index, could be "catastrophic" if authorities in the West African country do not intervene urgently to guarantee food security, according to ANDDH. "Already, many able-bodied persons have deserted their villages for urban centres and neighbouring countries," said ANDDH. In 2005 a severe food crisis in Niger affected 3.6 million people, among them 800,000 children as a consequence of drought and locust invasion. Meanwhile, locusts have infested all regions of Mauritania, the country's national centre for locust control announced on Tuesday. (Additional reporting by Abdoulaye Massalaki in Niamey)
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