• establishment and training of a Locust Watch Unit inside the Plant Protection Directorate, for monitoring and analysis of the locust situation over the whole invasion area;
• aerial and ground survey operations;
• monitoring and mitigation of locust control operations to preserve human health and protect the environment;
• training in pesticide and spraying operations management.

• Wheat and barley production dropped to less than 2 million tonnes last year from 4 to 4.5 million tonnes in normal years.
• Vegetable, fruit and olive production declined significantly in both Homs and Dara'a Governorates, including a 60 percent drop in vegetable production in Homs and a 40 percent drop in olive oil production in Dara'a.
• Only 45 percent of the farmers were able to fully harvest their cereal crops while 14 percent reported they could not harvest due to insecurity and lack of fuel.  
• There is a lack of access to agricultural inputs including quality seeds and fertilizers.
• There is a lack of irrigation due to damage to main irrigation canals especially in Homs and lack of fuel for irrigation pumps.
• Movement of livestock to grazing areas has not been possible and their survival is compromised by the lack of animal feed and veterinary drugs, the importation of which is hampered by sanctions.
• The production of poultry, a traditional source of cheap animal protein has also been severely hit with major farms destroyed in Homs, Hama and Idleb.

"France shares FAO's and the UN's position that we are not in a food price crisis, but we need to remain vigilant," said Graziano da Silva.

During the meeting, Graziano da Silva recognized the role played by France in placing food security and food price volatility on the international agenda.

President Hollande has said that "the old order has gone but the new one has not yet emerged," including the need to create new governance arrangements to adequately address hunger and new challenges to world food security in the long-run.

"We thank France for its leadership in these issues," said Graziano da Silva. "The establishment by the G20 of the Agricultural Market Information System in 2011 is important to improve market information and reduce volatility," added Graziano da Silva.

AMIS was set up in 2011 to improve transparency and information flows on global markets and, through its Rapid Response Forum, to promote better coordination of policy responses to food price volatility.

France has been chair of AMIS since it was created. At the end of September, the United States assumes the chair for a 12-month period.

"France has done a very good job in chairing AMIS in its first year," said Graziano da Silva.

The Director-General voiced his support for convening a meeting of the G20 agricultural ministers at FAO headquarters in Rome on 16 October, an opportunity presented by the fact that some ministers have already confirmed their presence for the World Food Day Ceremony and the Committee of World Food Security Session that will take place that week.

The proposed meeting would allow a review of the progress made towards
better governance of food markets since the establishment of AMIS.

In their first official meeting, Hollande reaffirmed his commitment to the Organization and praised the work being done by Graziano da Silva.

Food stocks

One option discussed to address the impact of food price volatility was the creation of strategic food security stocks to provide emergency relief in a crisis, targeting the poor countries.

France confirmed its support to a code of conduct for emergency humanitarian food reserve management. Work on this code of conduct is being started and will include all stakeholders, said the Director-General.

They stressed that such stocks should not be designed for any intended market intervention to set a ceiling on prices, but rather, could serve together with other safety net mechanisms as cushions in the event of any threat to national food security.

Sahel

The need to increase short, medium and long-term support to poor developing countries, such as those from the Sahel, was also a topic at the meeting in Paris.

"We will work together with other partners to increase assistance to the countries in the Sahel. Our focus will be to prevent further crises and to reinforce the resilience of vulnerable populations there, with a special emphasis on promoting agricultural investments and supporting the livelihoods of pastoralists," the FAO Director-General explained.

FAO's emergency programme in the Sahel currently benefits 3.8 million people in food and livestock production, domestic animal protection, related technical assistance and desert locust control activities.

Africa's Sahel region has been hard hit by a series of droughts, conflict and plant pests. Currently, 18.7 million people are facing food and nutrition insecurity in this region.

The increased support to the Sahel was discussed in the framework of a new cooperation agreement signed by France and FAO.

France and FAO renew framework agreement

During the Director-General's visit to Paris, France and FAO signed a four-year accord to strengthen cooperation.

The agreement strengthens the already solid cooperation that exists and focuses on emerging food security and agriculture issues: the need for greater sustainability in our food system, the need to increase resilience in vulnerable populations, the need to reinforce our global standard-setting work and bring this to the country level and the need to continue increasing the participation of all stakeholders - governments, international and regional organizations, the scientific community, the private sector, civil society and non-governmental organizations.

The Director-General and the Minister Delegate for Development of France, Pascal Canfin, signed the agreement in a ceremony also attended by the Minister of Agriculture of France, Stéphane Le Foll.

World Organisation for Animal Health

Earlier in the day, Graziano da Silva met with Bernard Vallat, Director General of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), which is headquartered in Paris. They agreed to work on a formal accord to address the overlaps in the mandates of the two agencies and facilitate and improve cooperation.

Priority issues mentioned during the meeting included the progressive control of transboundary animal diseases; joint strategies and working groups on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), peste des petits ruminants (PPR) and rift valley fever (RVF); placement of regional animal health centres; joint work on food- and wildlife-borne diseases; aquatic diseases and aquaculture.

Graziano da Silva pointed out that FAO's work in this area should focus on the organization's core mandate to fight hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty.

"The situation in Yemen and Syria reminds us of the clear link between food security and peace. In this case, internal conflict is causing food insecurity. But, it works the other way around as well. 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," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said.

The report also lists 35 countries in need of external food assistance, including Afghanistan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Haiti, Iraq and Mali. Of the total, 28 countries are in Africa.

"This only goes to show, again, that hunger today is mainly a problem of access. Millions of poor families worldwide lack the means to produce their own food or decent jobs and income to buy the food they need," Graziano da Silva said.

Africa, Near East

West Africa continues to face "increasing food insecurity and malnutrition in several countries," due to a sharp drop in cereal and pasture production in 2011, combined with high local food prices and civil strife.

Escalating conflict in Mali, resulting displacement towards neighbouring countries, and Desert Locust outbreaks moving southward from North Africa are considered additional threats to 2012 agricultural production in the Sahel, especially in Niger, Mali and Chad, FAO said.

In Eastern Africa, the main season rains started late, shortening the crop growing period. Furthermore, floods affected areas in Kenya, Somalia, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda, while severe dry conditions persist in parts of northeastern and coastal districts in Kenya.

In North Africa, Morocco is expected to see sharp declines in production following "erratic and insufficient" rains, while the rest of the region is expected to produce above-average harvests.

Unfavourable weather conditions in 2012, including dry spells and cyclones, resulted in cereal production declines in parts of Southern Africa, while high food prices in Malawi worsen food insecurity.

In the Near East, the deteriorating food security situation was cited as a major concern in the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen as a result of the civil unrest. An estimated 1 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria due to the impact of the continuing social unrest on households and food distribution channels in several markets.

In Yemen, about 5 million people are estimated to be severely food insecure and in need of emergency food assistance, as a result of high levels of poverty, prolonged conflict and high food and fuel prices.

Ukraine bread basket vulnerable

In the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Europe, FAO forecasts a six-percent decline in cereal production, to 148 million tonnes, against last year's level. This mainly reflects the unfavourable prospects in Ukraine, where adverse weather conditions during the winter cropping are taking its toll on grain crops. Wheat production is forecast at 14 million tonnes, nearly 40 percent below last year's bumper crop and well below the average of the past five years.

The significant drop in Ukraine, a major food producer in the region, is expected to have an impact on supplies and pricing in neighbouring countries.

In the CIS in Asia, wheat production in Kazakhstan, the major cereal producer in the sub-region, was put at 14.7 million tonnes, one-third below last year's record level.

Asia, Americas see gains

The FAO report forecasts a record increase of 3.2 percent in world cereal production in 2012, totalling an estimated 2 419 million tonnes, mainly on account of a bumper maize crop in the United States.

Record harvests and improved production were expected across much of Asia, North America, Central America and South America.

World cereal stocks for crop seasons ending in 2013 are forecast to increase to 548 million tonnes, up 7 percent from their opening levels and the highest since 2002. This outlook is 4 percent (or 23.5 million tonnes) higher than was reported last month, entirely due to an increase in the forecast for world coarse grain inventories which now stand at 201 million tonnes -- up 20 percent from the previous season's low of 167 million tonnes.

Food prices

Globally, the FAO Food Price Index, which measures the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, dropped by 4 percent in May due to generally favourable supplies, growing world economic uncertainties, and a strengthening of the US dollar.

Groups of locusts have recently been found in northern Niger, arriving from infestations further north.

FAO says locust-control efforts in the region are being hindered by continued insecurity along both sides of the Algerian-Libyan border. Political insecurity and conflict in Mali could also hamper monitoring and control efforts if the locusts reach that country.

Locust infestations were first reported in southwest Libya near Ghat in January 2012 and in southeast Algeria. 

In late March, FAO warned that swarms could arrive in Niger and Mali by June. Continued rains and the resulting growth of vegetation led to the formation of swarms by mid-May.

“How many locusts there are and how far they move will depend on two major factors – the effectiveness of current control efforts in Algeria and Libya and upcoming rainfall in the Sahel of West Africa,” said Keith Cressman, FAO Senior Locust Forecasting Officer.

Both Algeria and Libya have been working hard to treat infested areas, covering a total of 40 000 hectares in Algeria and 21 000 hectares in Libya as of the end of May.

"In a normal year, Algeria and Libya would have been able to control most of the local swarms and prevent their movement towards the south, but insecurity along both sides of the Algerian-Libyan border is getting in the way of full access by local teams and by FAO experts who need to assess the situation. Libya’s capacity to carry out control efforts has also been affected in the past year,” Cressman explained.

Niger last faced Desert Locust swarms during the 2003-05 plague that affected farmers in two dozen countries.

The FAO Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Western Region (CLCPRO) has provided $300 000 in funding to tackle locust infestations in Libya, and FAO has added an additional $400 000 to address the problem.

In Brazzaville, Graziano da Silva warned that funding gaps to assist herders, agro-pastoralists and farmers in the ongoing rainy season in the Sahel and Horn of Africa total over $110 million and called upon the donor community to maintain its support to a hunger-free Africa.

Funding gaps for the entire year reach a total of $239 million  for the two regions.

Regional Conference

Forty-five African countries attended the FAO Regional Conference.

The meeting concluded with African countries reaffirming their commitment to ending hunger in the continent and defining which areas FAO should focus its work on to support this goal. They include increasing productivity and market access for smallholders, reducing vulnerability to threats to food and nutrition security and improving management and governance for sustainable use of natural resources.

Participants thanked FAO for its support to the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and stressed the importance of continuing to work in its framework and of stimulating public and private partnerships and investments to develop the continent’s agricultural sector.

The next Regional Conference for Africa will take place in 2014 in Tunisia.

During last year’s famine in Somalia, Africa had shown it could act in solidarity to assist crisis-struck populations.

“What we undertook yesterday with some success we can do again today if we are moved by the same will and the same determination,” he added.  

President Sassou Nguesso also hailed FAO’s “major role in removing constraints and obstacles to agricultural development”.

Speaking at the Regional Conference yesterday, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva warned that serious funding gaps to assist herders, agro-pastoralists and farmers in the ongoing rainy season in the Sahel and Horn of Africa total over 110 million dollars.

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Taking action

FAO is working with its partners to “stop jumping from crisis to crisis,” by getting life-saving and livelihood-saving cash, food, agricultural inputs and training to the people who need them most, in addition to planning longer-term interventions to protect and restore the livelihoods of farmers, agropastoralists and pastoralists, the Director-General said.

Immediately planned FAO support will include: 

• helping farmers with the delivery of food crops and vegetable seeds in time for the main planting season, which begins in May
• increases in off-season irrigated crop production
• drought-related assistance to herders, including the distribution of animal feed, use of cash vouchers to rehabilitate natural pastures and water points
• production of animal fodder; livestock destocking, and veterinary inputs
• provision of integrated nutrition practices through agriculture, livestock rearing, school gardens, and nutrition education for women with children
• support for reinforcement of food security-information, early-warning systems and coordination.

The FAO Director-General said regional and local leadership, supported by UN coordination, will be crucial to the success of a twin-track approach. This approach aims to ensure that critical, short-term hunger needs are met, while action is taken to protect the assets and livelihood systems of farmers and pastoralists and build resilience in the long term.

“If we are to avoid yet another disaster, the humanitarian and livelihoods responses must be funded and applied on a scale that ensures protection of all vulnerable communities before they are forced to shed their assets,” Graziano da Silva explained.

Regional coordination

FAO’s response to the situation in the Sahel is taking place as part of an already active regional strategy. Humanitarian organizations have already launched the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Regional Strategy for Preparedness and Response to a Food, Nutrition and Livelihood Crisis in the Sahel, in addition to Consolidated Appeals Processes (CAPs) for Chad and Niger.

FAO is working with the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS, by its French acronym) as well as with the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), WFP, and governments through joint food security, agricultural and markets assessments.

The Organization is also providing support, through the IASC, to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in order to further strengthen its capacities to intervene in potential humanitarian crisis.

FAO’s emergency response requirements

Since 2010, a total of $ 25.4 million has been allocated through FAO to the Sahel. At least an additional $ 75.4 million are required to support 790 000 vulnerable households. While $ 5.6 million have been mobilized, a funding gap of $69.8 million remains. The donors which have provided assistance in the region include Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the European Union and its Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO), Finland, France, Luxemburg, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

“We can’t avoid droughts, but we can put measures in place to try to prevent them from becoming a famine. We have three months until the next rainy season,” he added.

Graziano da Silva emphasized that FAO will step up its current efforts in the Horn of Africa and highlighted that agriculture is a key factor in establishing peace and stability in the region.

Successful response

According to FSNAU/FEWS NET, adequate rainfall between October and December 2011 coupled with agricultural and humanitarian interventions allowed farmers to produce and buy more food.

As part of its emergency response, FAO distributed seeds and fertilizers to Somali farmers. In the regions of Bay and Shabelle they took advantage of rains and the inputs provided by FAO and other agencies to double their production of maize and sorghum, their highest harvest in years.

FAO also rehabilitated 594 kilometers of irrigation canals and treated 2.6 million livestock at risk of diseases and infections associated with drought.

In the last six months, FAO, UNICEF, WFP and international NGOs have also operated cash-for-work and food-voucher programmes, instead of relying only on food and input handouts. The cash allowed families to buy food locally and remain in their home areas while also stimulating economic recovery and helping rehabilitate local infrastructure for agriculture and herding.

This mix of agricultural and humanitarian interventions has contributed to a significant reduction in local cereal prices in most of the vulnerable areas in the south, improving purchasing power for poor households. In sorghum-producing areas, for example, the amount of cereals that people could buy with one day’s work increased from four to 14 kilograms between July  and December 2011.

Although much increased,  Somalia's last crop was from a secondary harvest which only contributes 10 percent of annual cereal requirements, meaning that stocks will only last into the next planting season starting between April and June. The report also warned that an estimated 325,000 acutely malnourished Somali children remain at risk.

The current crisis continues to affect the whole Horn of Africa region with 9.5 million people in need of emergency assistance in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, down from 13 million at the height of the crisis.

Renewed commitment

The FAO Director-General also called for a renewed commitment by all stakeholders involved - governments, regional bodies such as the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the private sector, civil society organizations, humanitarian and development actors, and the peoples of the region themselves. He also committed FAO to working within the framework of existing initiatives, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

Accompanied by the Chairman of the Committee on World Food Security, Ambassador Yaya Olaniran, and senior FAO staff members, the Director-General visited the village of Dollow, in the Gedo Region of Somalia to assess the situation first hand and see the work being done by FAO and its partners.

“I had a rare opportunity to meet with Somali farmers and herders in Dollow. I witnessed the impact that we can make in their lives. And, most importantly, I saw what they can do for themselves, if they receive the right support at the right time,” he said.

In 2009-2010, FAO supported 1,500 agricultural households and 35 000 pastoralist households in the Gedo Region to build their resilience. This allowed them to to cope with the recent famine without outside assistance as they could produce and sell their own food.

It is crucial to build on these lessons and step up efforts to enable the world's most vulnerable people to withstand future shocks and produce the food they need to live active and healthy lives.

• Ensuring that lifesaving food assistance needs are met and that nutrition support is scaled up
• Saving surviving livestock to protect the food security of  pastoralists
• Saving the forthcoming planting season starting in October ensuring that farmers have access to inputs such as seeds, fertilizer, and irrigation water
• Expanding cash-for-work programmes to allow people to buy food at local markets and prevent the sale of assets

The meeting also stressed the vital importance of supporting actions aimed at addressing the root causes of the problem in the Horn:

• Protecting and restoring degraded land resources
• Improving water management and expanding irrigation (only 1% of the land in the Horn of Africa region is irrigated, versus 7% in Africa and 38% in Asia)
• Improving animal, plant, and range management practices of small scale farmers to make them less vulnerable to hazards and climate variability
• Strengthening community-based animal health services
• Identifying viable and acceptable alternatives to pastoral livelihoods

Support for such activities should be a sustained, multi-year effort and be linked to improvements in basic services including education, health and clean water, participants added.

The meeting recommended continued support for the African Union-sponsored Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which envisions investing more in supporting livelihood resilience in drought prone areas.

From crisis to recovery

The technical meeting was organized by FAO as a follow-up to the Emergency Ministerial-Level Meeting on the Horn of Africa, convened on 25 July 2011 at the request of the French Presidency of the G-20. The event aimed to review both immediate as well as longer-term responses to the crisis. Recommendations generated by the meeting will guide international response efforts and help prepare upcoming advocacy, fundraising and coordination events to support the affected population in the region.

Unfortunately, "slow-onset" humanitarian crises, such as the worsening drought in the Horn in Africa, have not received the same attention, leaving millions of women, men and children vulnerable to devastating hunger and malnutrition.

Rather than waiting for a full-blown, life-threatening disaster, that will cost exponentially more in loss of lives, livelihoods and humanitarian interventions, we must act now to save those already suffering from hunger and malnutrition as we build resiliency and food security in the region.

Unfortunately, we are already behind the curve, having lost a narrow window of opportunity to begin building upon food security gains in the Horn of Africa following several seasons of successful rains and harvests that had reduced the number of hungry people.

Today, countries in the region are confronted with the failure of the short rains in late 2010 and negative trends that threaten the long rainy season in 2011. These conditions have already increased the number of severely food insecure people.

The number of those requiring emergency assistance has grown from 6.3 million in early 2011 to 10 million today - a 40 percent increase - in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda (Karamoja region). The majority of the newly affected people are reported to be in Kenya (1.2 million). In addition, the number of Somali refugees in camps in Kenya and Ethiopia has reached the unprecedented figure of about 517,000 people.

The good news is that we know what to do. In 2010, the humanitarian community created an Action Plan to address the root causes of food insecurity to bring resiliency to a region that has suffered from protracted crises for nearly three decades. This plan calls for a partnership between countries, humanitarian organizations and the development assistance community to link long-term development efforts with humanitarian assistance to build food security. 

It is critical that we build household resilience, protect productive assets, reduce the scale of emergency assistance and put in place measures to avoid a similar crisis when rain inevitably fails in the future.

To ensure that complacency does not drive destiny in this region we therefore call for:

• Emergency and Sustainable Food Assistance - Full funding of emergency requirements to stop the current hunger and malnutrition from accelerating and support of safety net programs, such as school feeding and local purchase and P4P initiatives.
• Small farmer support - Immediate support to national food security plans to ensure that countries support the poorest farmers with essential assistance such as tools, seeds, fertilizers, food-based nutrition and the knowledge needed to boost agricultural production and sustain rural livelihoods.
• Proactive policy and risk reduction and investment - Supporting policies and investments that address core challenges such as climate change adaptation, preparedness and disaster risk reduction and management, rural livelihoods, productive infrastructure, production and marketing, institutions and governance, conflict resolution, pastoralist issues and access to essential health and education.

These efforts need to build upon national and regional frameworks and strategies, especially the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme led by the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Regional organizations will be crucial for mobilizing concerted action against threats to food and nutrition security. The African Union and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development, in particular, have an important role to play.

We recognize that emergencies in the Horn of Africa will not be stopped tomorrow. But we must seize the opportunity to break the chronic cycle of food insecurity and make sure that this is the last generation to be robbed of a future through the scourge of hunger and malnutrition.

We call on the international community to extend all the necessary political, moral and financial means required to comprehensively address the worsening crisis now affecting the Horn of Africa as we help nations in the region build a food secure destiny.

Jacques Diouf               Josette Sheeran                Barbara Stocking

Director-General           Executive Director             Chief Executive
FAO                               WFP                                  Oxfam GB