Niger, Chad, Mali face hunger prospect, says FAO

In its latest global food forecast for this year, the UN’s food agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation has predicted record harvests in Asia, North America, Central America and South America, while forecasting food shortages in 35 countries of the world, 28 of them in Africa.

Among the countries that would face hunger are Niger, Mali and Chad in West Africa. The FAO said they would need external food assistance just like Afghanistan, North Korea, Haiti, Iraq and Mali.

According to FAO, agricultural production in the Africa’s Sahel, especially Niger, Mali and Chad, is threatened by the escalating conflict in Mali as well as locust outbreaks from North Africa.

Civil unrest in Syria has left an estimated one million people in need of humanitarian assistance while in Yemen about five million people are thought to need emergency food aid due to extreme poverty and prolonged conflict.

Although, the agency said this year’s forecasts for global food production are positive overall but warned that some areas will likely struggle due to armed conflict and displacement.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s report forecasts “a record increase of 3.2 percent in world cereal production in 2012, mainly on the strength of a bumper maize crop in the United States.”

“Wheat and coarse grains prices eased in May, mostly during the second half, driven by good supply prospects,” the FAO said.

Despite the positive trend, “several regions of the world are expected to struggle with the consequences of poor rainfall, severe weather, armed conflict and displacement,” the Rome-based agency said.

“The situation in Yemen and Syria reminds us of the clear link between food security and peace. Internal conflict is causing food insecurity. But it works the other way around as well,” FAO head Jose Graziano da Silva said.

“Throughout the world we see crisis after crisis caused, in its entirety or in part, by the lack of food or disputes over natural resources, especially land and water,” he added.

“World cereal stocks for crop seasons ending in 2013 are forecast to increase to 548 million tonnes, up seven percent from their opening levels and the highest since 2002,” the report added.