Good seasonal conditions favor rural food security improvement
KEY MESSAGES
Food availability is adequate country-wide, but poor farming households in the north and the southeast face difficulty in maintaining regular and sufficient access to food. In the former case, this is due to two consecutive poor agropastoral seasons and, in the latter case, to the effects of the presence of 75,000 refugees, which has driven up food prices and decreased seasonal income. Households in these areas continue to face Stress levels of acute food security (IPC Phase 2). Elsewhere in the country’s most densely populated areas, food security remains stable (Figure 1).
June rains appear consistent with seasonal forecasts made by ACMAD, the Regional Agrhymet Center, and the Mauritanian Weather Service (ONM) for average to above-average levels of rainfall, in line with the historical ten-year average.
In the most likely scenario for July through December, good pastoral conditions and farming activities will provide average if not better-than-average levels of seasonal income and agropastoral production for poor households in all livelihood zones, resulting in Minimal food insecurity (IPC Phase 1) between August and December (Figures 2 and 3).
The gradual restoration of civil security in the southeast is helping to increase short-term seasonal migration and cross-border trade, while reducing refugee inflows. Return migration by Malian refugees, who arrived in the country following the French military intervention, has been reported.
