Record rise in cereal prices undermines household food security
KEY MESSAGES
Increasing millet and maize prices, already well aboveaverage in April, will overshoot seasonal norms between now and the height of the lean season and the end of Ramadan in late August due to market disruptions triggered by last year’s floods in Nigeria. Central and Eastern Niger will be most affected.
Despite anticipated price increases, household incomes are generally considered average to good this year, and should allow households to purchase sufficient cereal to meet food needs. Thus, even without assistance, most poor households should be able to meet their basic food and nonfood needs and will experience only IPC Phase 1 Minimal levels of acute food insecurity.
In Diffa, higher prices, the destruction of pepper crops, and affect of conflict in Nigeria on cross border livestock trading are likely to expose poor households in agropastoral and farming areas of this region region to IPC Phase 2 Stress levels of acute food insecurity between July and September.