TANZANIA (23 September)
Serious food shortages were recently reported in several regions, including Dodoma, Shinyanga, Singida, Manyara, Lindi, Coast and Morogoro.Also, there are pockets of food insecurity in Tanga, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Mwanza, Mara and Tabora Regions, which completely lost their crops to drought. Preliminary forecasts of the 2002/03 food crop production indicate a 10 percent decline compared to last year, caused mainly by extended dry weather in eastern, central, western and southern areas of the country between February and mid-March, and by early termination of the main seasonal rains. Many areas experienced a dry spell of more than three weeks at a critical stage in crop development.
Cereal prices have more than doubled in most parts of the country, contrary to last year and to normal trends. A Rapid Vulnerability Assessment (RVA), carried out by the Food Security Information Team (FSIT) in June/July, indicated that prolonged drought conditions in several parts of the country have particularly reduced food and cash crop output, thus limiting wage-labour opportunities and affecting a large number of households. A food deficit of about 77 489 tonnes is anticipated for the market year 2003/04; it has been estimated that nearly 1.94 million people will require food assistance between October 2003 and March 2004. In addition, a deficit of approximately 3 200 tonnes of various seed types is anticipated, and emergency seed assistance will be needed during the month of October 2003 for the short-, long- and main planting seasons during the next cropping season.
The Government of U.R. Tanzania has recently instructed the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR) to release 32 000 tonnes of maize to the regions most affected by food shortages; so far 7 200 tonnes have been distributed to 16 critically affected districts.