Focus Media (Kigali)
Sam Ruburika
21 October 2009
1.02 billion people have gone hungry this year, according to a report released this year. This comes at a time when several regions in East Africa are threatened by famine due to drought. Rwanda, for its part, looks at the moment to be holding its own.
The sharp spike in hunger triggered by the global economic crisis has hit the poorest people in developing countries hardest, revealing a fragile world food system in urgent need of reform, according to a report released by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) on the occasion of World Food Day last Friday.
The combination of food and economic crises has pushed the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels - more than one billion people are undernourished, according to FAO estimates.
Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries. In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger; in Sub-Saharan Africa 265 million; in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million; in the Near East and North Africa 42 million; and in developed countries 15 million, according FAO's annual hunger report, The State of Food Insecurity.
The report comes at a time when several countries in East Africa and the Horn are threatened by famine due to drought. Oxfam UK recently launched an emergency appeal for US$ 15 million to reach millions of people threatened by hunger in Ethiopia and other countries on the east coast including some EAC member states.
The famine threat is a result of a persistent drought which is believed to be the worst in the last ten years, with the number of people at risk is twice as high as those affected during the last serious crisis in 2006.
Among the nations under threat mentioned by the UK-based NGO are Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, which has been hit especially hard by the drought. So far, Rwanda does not seem affected.
According to Agriculture Minister Agnes Kalibata, there is currently no famine threat in the country. "We do not have food security problem," Kalibata stated last week, explaining that the country has received a fair share of rainfall which covered at least three-quarters of the country.
However, she recognized some local problems exist, such as in the districts of Bugesera in Eastern province and Nyaruguru in Southern province that have undergone severe drought spells resulting in significant food shortages. "Some districts do experience a problem with rainfall, so there we encourage the cultivation of drought-resistant crops such as cassava which is able to thrive in such areas," Kalibata said.
The overall food security in the country is attributed mainly to the crop intensification program that the ministry embarked upon, and which has led to unprecedented yields in the past two years. While agricultural production in the EAC region deteriorates, in Rwanda the sector has continued to register growth.
During last week's joint agriculture sector review, a one day workshop bringing together main players in the agriculture sector to review its performance and forge the way forward, it was noted that in seasons A and B there had been an increase in production of 19% and 6.6% respectively.
It was said that the main factors explaining this good performance were crop intensification programs, especially for cassava, maize and wheat; adoption of disease-resistant crops; a slight increase in the area under cultivation of 1.32%, a shift towards higher-yield crops such as roots and tubers; and an overall increase in productivity with beans registering an 11% rise.
"Basically the agriculture sector performed well in the past seasons and so we find no threat to our food security," Kalibata remarked.
She pointed out however, that this was due to steady rainfall in most parts of the country coupled with better policies and strategies, yet that the first factor is unpredictable.
"We have managed to stay out of trouble so far, but our efforts will be determined by the amount of rainfall we get, especially considering that season C is behaving very oddly," Kalibata noted.
As Rwanda prepares to celebrate the World Food Day on October 16, Kalibata took the opportunity to drum up support for Nyaruguru district which has been hit hard; she requested participants in the joint agriculture sector review to contribute whatever they could afford to help residents of the district.
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