ERITREA* (23 September)
Beneficial rains in August maintained favourable conditions for the 2003 main season cereal and pulse crops to be harvested from October/November. However, erratic and inadequate spring rains (March to May), and below-average rains in June that delayed land preparation and sowing in some parts of the country, may affect yields. An interim crop assessment carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture in mid-August has put the expected cereal harvest at about 207 000 tonnes, a strong recovery from last year’s decimated crop, but about 12 percent below the average for the five previous years. Continued rainfall through September will be necessary to achieve the forecast mentioned above.
Food grain prices, although stable, are generally high. For instance, sorghum prices in July 2003 were over 50 percent higher than at the same time last year. Terms of trade for pastoralists remained generally stable in June and July. Earlier in the year, the sorghum-per sheep/goat terms of trade rose by more than 50 percent between February and April.
The overall food situation remains severe, with as many as two-thirds of the country’s population facing severe food shortages caused by last year’s drought. Of these, about 1.6 million were reported to be in need of emergency food assistance. In addition, humanitarian assistance is still needed for the many people internally displaced by the war with neighbouring Ethiopia, returning refugees from Sudan, and children benefiting from WFP’s Emergency School Feeding Programme. An FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission has been planned to visit Eritrea towards the end of October to appraise 2003 main season cereal production as well as estimate commercial imports/exports and food aid requirements in 2004.