Plan responds to Niger Food Crisis
A woman in Niger collecting wild leaves to eat. Many people have to walk for days to find edible leaves. Photo: Plan/Nicolas Robert.
May 27, 2010 - Plan is responding to the needs of communities in Niger, West Africa which is currently experiencing severe food shortages.
In many areas stockpiles of food have been used up and people are resorting to increasingly drastic measures in order to cope. These include putting children to work to earn extra income, gathering leaves and plants from the bush to eat and migrating to other areas.
Food insecure
The situation is particularly bad in two of Plan’s areas of operation, Tillabéri and Dosso where much of the population (63% and 50% respectively) are being described as either moderately or severely “food insecure” which means they have reduced quantities of food available and the food they have is of inferior nutritional quality.
A sign of increasing desperation is that people in southern Niger are beginning to migrate towards Nigeria and are thus likely to miss the planting season. Some families are selling their most valuable animals, female livestock of reproductive age, to raise money for food. This will have an ongoing impact in future years.
More than 10,000 tons of food
The food shortages are a result of poor rains during the 2009 agricultural season which delayed planting in many areas and failure of seeds to germinate in others, combined with a long dry spell, caused major disruptions in crop growth.
Plan Niger was selected by WFP to coordinate targeted distribution of food in the Tillabéri department. Plan partnered with two local NGOs and one international NGO (Islamic Relief) to implement the distribution.
As of May 21, 2010, 1048.31 tons of food has been distributed to beneficiaries in 118 vulnerable villages.
Plan is now preparing for a second round of distributions and is in the process of purchasing foodstuffs from neighbouring countries. The aim is to provide enough in the second round to cover populations’ needs until the harvest. This is because the logistical challenges posed by the rainy season would make a third round extremely difficult.
