NIGERIA: Food shortages on
the horizon with northern farmers declaring bad crop
Source: IRIN
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DAKAR, 19 October 2007 (IRIN) - Harvests will be poor in the north of Nigeria because of
inadequate rains, according to the Kano State chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN). "The implication of this is that there is likely to be shortage of food items in the coming
season," said the state chairman of the association, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, speaking on state radio, as reported by BBC Monitoring on 18 October. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) told
IRIN its "optimistic" mid-September crop forecast for the Sahel region had been revised down as the rains have ended early. However, FAO also stressed that the extent of the problem in northern
Nigeria will not be known until after the results of a joint evaluation mission are announced next week. The mission, which started work on 15 October, includes experts from the intergovernmental
organisations Le Comité Permanent Inter Etats de lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel or CILSS and FewsNet, a US-funded organisation for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. The farm
association offered anecdotal evidence of rising food prices already. Maize is selling at about 3,000 naira (US$24.58) a basin, Nanono, AFAN's state chairman, said. "When you compare the prices of
these commodities to last year around this time we were just ranging about 2,000 naira ($16.38)". dh/nr © IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org
