Burundi Food Crisis Looms

BUJUMBURA, 13 December (IRIN) - A food crisis is looming in the north and east-central Burundi, a consultant at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said.

However, Methode Niyongendako said the severity of the food crisis in Ngozi, Kirundo, Kayanza, Muyinga, Karuzi and Cankuzo provinces would not be as bad as last year.

Adverse climatic conditions are to blame, with poor rains in September, the planting season for maize and beans, followed by heavy rains in November, which caused flooding in some areas, damaging crops in the wetlands.

Another reason is the high population density in provinces such as Kayanza and Ngozi. "Every year brings a 3.5% increase of the population, exerting a pressure on the land," Niyongendako said.

In addition, yam yields have been declining in the past 10 years, while cassava, another staple, is affected by the mosaic virus. Niyongendako said the population relied on the two crops mainly during the lean season from September to January, so the food crisis is not expected to be too severe during this period.

The FAO warned of the looming food crisis in the November issue of its bulletin, Système d' Alerte précoce et Surveillance de la Sécurité Alimentaire au Burundi. It said a joint team of the FAO, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which visited the Muyinga and Kirundo provinces to assess the situation, found that "nearly 80% of the adult population and 65% of children in the two provinces were eating one meal per day".

The bulletin also reported that residents of these provinces had run out of food stocks and were mainly depending on local markets for food being brought in from neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

"Even if the situation is difficult, it will not reach the alarming proportions of the year 2005 at the same period," FAO said in the bulletin.

However, at a meeting on Friday with Ngozi Governor Felix Niragira, administrators of Kiremba and Marangara reported that 71 people had already died of hunger in their two communes - 18 in Kiremba and 53 in Marangara; while another 50 had reportedly fled to Rwanda. These reports have not, however, been confirmed independently.

According to an assistant coordinator of agricultural emergency operations at the Burundi office of the FAO, Alexandre Huynh: "People are not eating enough, they may also suffer from malnutrition but there are no people dying of hunger now."

However, he said, the food shortage could worsen if rains fail until the end of December. "Each day without rains compromises the chances of the next harvest of beans," Huynh said. Beans are one of Burundi's staples.

WFP has started food distribution in the affected provinces. An assistant information officer at the WFP, Isidore Nteturuye, says 70% of the food aid for December and January would be distributed - or 20,000. For December alone, Nteturuye said 230,500 households would be targeted, with each family receiving 31 kilograms of cereals and legumes.

FAO is also scheduled to undertake an emergency response by distributing seeds. FAO program officer Gerald Madodo said 4,000 households would receive sorghum seeds by the end of December. He said 240,000 households received beans, maize and vegetable seeds in September.

As a long-term strategy to make the population more self-reliant, the FAO is boosting the distribution of mosaic-virus-resistant cassava seeds.

In 2005, the Burundian government had declared famine in Cankuzo, Ngozi, Kirundo, Muyinga and Rutana provinces. In February this year, the government received pledges of US$170 million from donors to help it deal with emergency needs.

Apart from the international emergency aid, the government also set up the National Solidarity Fund for Food Security, through which civil servants, private companies and individuals could contribute money to feed hundreds of thousands of people who were facing food shortages.