Poor 2009/10 millet harvest in West Africa's eastern Sahel region
The poor distribution of rains during the 2009 rainy season in the Sahelian zone of West Africa's eastern market basin resulted in poor production, in Niger, northeastern Mali and Burkina Faso, far northern Nigeria, and central Chad particularly for millet, the staple food of the poor (Figure 1). Production of millet is likely to be 30 percent below average, and total cereal production for 2009/10 in West Africa is below last year's record harvests. Total regional production, however, is expected to be near average thanks to surpluses in the region's west basin and Sudanian and Guinean zones. If food flows relatively freely from surplus to deficit areas, availability in affected areas will be sufficient to meet needs. Access to food via markets, however, will be constrained by high prices and reduced incomes. Needs for assistance will be higher than normal for pastoralists and agro–pastoralist between January and at least June when migrant laborers return home to plant. Poor agriculturalists in Niger, Chad, and northeastern Mali will need assistance until the early harvests in August. If government policies restrict cereal flows, these people could face reduced cereal availability, high prices (approaching real levels similar to those of the 2005 crisis), and locally extreme food insecurity.
