About 10 million people in the Sahel region are threatened by food shortages, following erratic rainfalls in 2008 and 2009 that caused poor harvest in 2009.

The food crisis is affecting several countries in the region: 7.8 million people in Niger, 2 million people in Chad, 258,000 people in Mali, 370,000 people in Mauritania, as well as communities living in northern Nigeria, near the border with Niger, are now exposed to food insecurity*.

In Niger, according to a national survey carried out in April 2010, 7.1 million of people (47.7% of the population) are at risk of food insecurity: 3.3 million people (22.2% of the population) are affected by extreme food insecurity and 3.8 million people (25.5% of the population) are moderately food insecure**.

Late and insufficient rains in the country in mid-2009 resulted in a poor harvest at the end of the year. For agro-pastoralists, this means many vulnerable families will run out of food before the next harvest, scheduled in October 2010 - unless immediate relief interventions are implemented. Due to the decrease in agriculture and pastoral production, food prices have started to rise: cereal prices have increased by 20 per cent in all regions, compared to the average from 1991-2009***.

As a matter of fact, the annual ‘hungry season’ of late-June to October arrived earlier this year. Resulting conditions include grassland disappearing earlier in the dry season, leaving livestock without pasture and putting them at risk of starvation. Pastoralists are watching their livestock waste away for lack of pasture land, or are forced to sell them at below-market prices in order to buy food – eliminating their future income and putting them at further risk. If the 2010 rains do not arrive on time in May/June 2010, this will lead to a delay in the growth of new pasture for livestock, and pastoral households will require additional emergency assistance****.

The poorest families are already reducing the number of meals they eat every day and are resorting to eating ‘survival food’ like bitter berries.

To respond to the crisis, CARE has started to implement emergency activities, which include:

• Cash transfers to help poor families meet their food requirements throughout the lean season and to purchase seeds for the planting season
• Cash-for-work activities, which will include planting acacia trees to fight desertification, and soil recuperation activities to regenerate fertility of soil.
• Emergency food distributions in schools, to ensure children stay in school during the crisis, and distributions to vulnerable families.
• Supporting pastoralists by improving water access points, rehabilitating and protecting pasture land, and ensuring access to animal feed to prevent livestock from dying from starvation.

* UNOCHA "Food crisis at the centre of West African Mission of the United Nations Humanitarian Chief", 23 April 2010
** Survey on the food vulnerability in Niger conducted in April 2010 by DNPGCA (Dispositif National de Prévention et de Gestion des Crises Alimentaires) and INS (National Institute of Statistics)
*** Albichir - Mensuel d’Analyse approfondie des marchés (SIMA/PAM/FEWS), No. 3, January 2010
**** FEWSNET Niger Food Security Alert, January 29, 2010