The availability of harvests and animal products help improve food security
KEY MESSAGES
Cereal production for the 2013-2014 growing season is up 12 percent compared to the five-year average. However, despite of this overall gain, certain regions (Kanem, Wadi-Fira, Barh-El Ghazel, and Hajer Lamis) have been reporting large production shortfalls of approximately 50 percent due to a late start-of-season, poor rainfall distribution, and an earlier than normal end to the rainy season.
Ongoing cereal harvests, together with the availability of dairy products and market garden crops, are bolstering food stocks and are improving food security. Affordable food prices are also making cereals accessible to market dependant households. Under these conditions, most very poor households are able to meet their basic food needs and, thus, will experience Minimal (IPC Phase 1) acute food insecurity through at least December 2013.
However between January and March 2014, households in the North Ouara, Wadi–Fira, Kanem, Barh-El Ghazel, Hadjer Lamis, North Guera, and North Batha regions will be more dependent than usual on market purchases. This, along with atypically high food prices, will make food access more difficult. As a result, poor households will likely face Stressed (IPC Phase 2) food security outcomes during this period.
During the peak of the 2014 lean season (June to September), households in Wadi–Fira and Barh-El Ghazel will likely face food consumption gaps. During this time, acute food security outcomes are expected to deteriorate to Crisis (IPC Phase 3) levels.
