IRIN News (Food)
GLOBAL: Prepare for "climaggedon"
JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - Rice producing Asian countries had to contend with poor rains in 2009, and now another season of low rainfall has been forecast for some of them, which has prompted concern whether the price of the grain could go up later in 2010.
SOUTH AFRICA: Rift Valley Fever reported in two provinces
JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in two South African provinces has killed one person, while five others have tested positive for the disease, which has also caused "extensive livestock deaths", the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said in a statement on 9 March.
PHILIPPINES: Food security warnings over El Niño
MANILA Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - Warnings have been raised over food security in the Philippines as the El Niño phenomenon wreaks havoc across vast agricultural areas, leaving staple crops such as rice dying in parched earth, officials say.
SWAZILAND: Tackling one crisis at a time does not solve all
MBABANE Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) - The myriad crises afflicting Swaziland can only be solved with a holistic approach, not a piecemeal one, the World Food Programme (WFP) deputy executive director, Sheila Sisulu, said during a recent tour of the country.
PAKISTAN: Wheat rust threat rising
LAHORE Sunday, March 07, 2010 (IRIN) - Experts say it is only a matter of time before wind carries a deadly wheat stem pathogen into Pakistan, the ninth largest wheat producing nation in the world. Known as Ug99, the disease could potentially decimate the country’s highly vulnerable wheat crop and cause a huge food security problem.
IRIN: Today's most popular IRIN articles
NAIROBI Friday, March 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Here are the most popular new articles on the IRIN website over the last 24 hours. Updated hourly. This feature was launched on 18 July, but will display the latest, most popular items of today.
VIETNAM: Record drought threatens livelihoods
HANOI Friday, March 05, 2010 (IRIN) - As temperatures rise in Vietnam, a nationwide drought has dried up riverbeds, sparked forest fires and now threatens one of the world's richest agricultural regions, upon which millions depend for their livelihoods.
KENYA: Taking the risk out of farming
NAIROBI Friday, March 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Just as purchasers of electronic goods can buy extended warranties in case their TV goes wrong, farmers in parts of Kenya can now mitigate the risk of weather shocks by insuring their inputs at the point of sale. The programme, dubbed “Kilimo Salama”, Swahili for “safe farming”, was launched on 5 March in the Rift Valley provincial capital, Eldoret. It takes advantage of the ubiquity and multi-functionality of mobile phones in Kenya.
SYRIA: Severe food shortages in parched eastern region
DAMASCUS Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - Thousands of people have fled drought-affected eastern Syria and those that remain are struggling to survive on limited food stocks, according to a UN report released at the end of February.
NIGER: Food pressures spread north
AGADEZ Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - The unusually large-scale migration of southern Nigerien farmers and pastoralists, heading north to look for work, has prompted concerns about food shortages in the northern Agadez region, according to local authorities.
NIGER: Mariama Adao, "We help each other... but it is hard"
AGADEZ Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - Mariama Adao, aged 40 and a mother of eight, makes the 400km journey from Matameye in the south of Niger to Agadez in the north almost every year to make ends meet between growing seasons. However, this year’s poor harvest forced her to leave earlier - and bring six of her children with her.
SUDAN: No access after Darfur clashes
KHARTOUM Wednesday, March 03, 2010 (IRIN) - Weeks of fighting in parts of Darfur have raised concern over the plight of civilians, as insecurity has prompted humanitarian agencies to suspend activities in some areas.
GLOBAL: Are we heading for another food crisis?
JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, March 02, 2010 (IRIN) - Long dry spells in parts of Africa and erratic rainfall in Asia have cast uncertain clouds over crop yields for 2010 in the world's poorest countries. Food prices in most developing countries are down from their 2008 crisis levels, but still higher than they were in 2007.
GUINEA: Child malnutrition - moving beyond stop-gaps
DAKAR Thursday, February 25, 2010 (IRIN) - Nutrition experts in Guinea are studying options for treating moderately malnourished children, as funding shortages disrupt normal programmes using fortified flour.
YEMEN: Food security takes a knock
SANAA Thursday, February 25, 2010 (IRIN) - Cereal production in Yemen has declined for the second consecutive year due mainly to a lack of rainfall, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Abdulmalik al-Thawr.
AFRICA: Finding the food crops of the future
JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, February 24, 2010 (IRIN) - Temperatures seem set to soar to perilously high levels because of climate change. In another 40 years, would maize still be the staple food in Kenya, already hit by five failed rainy seasons? If not, what could people grow and eat? And if you could grow maize, how much water and fertilizer would it need?
ISRAEL-OPT: Gaza fishermen under fire
GAZA CITY Wednesday, February 24, 2010 (IRIN) - Sami al-Qouqa, a 30-year-old former fisherman from al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, lost his left hand when his fishing boat came under fire from an Israeli gunboat on 12 March 2007, in an incident documented by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
BURUNDI: Jacqueline Kabagirwa, “How can I tell my children there is nothing to eat for a day or two?”
KIRUNDO Tuesday, February 23, 2010 (IRIN) - Jacqueline Kabagirwa, 35, lives in the northern Burundi commune of Busoni but because of failed harvests following a drought, she commutes to neighbouring Rwanda, where a day’s work in the fields earns her just enough to feed her family. She tells IRIN of her experience:
BURUNDI: Drought leaves thousands needing food aid
KIRUNDO Tuesday, February 23, 2010 (IRIN) - Failed rains in northern Burundi have left tens of thousands of people needing food aid and prompted many to seek work in neighbouring Rwanda to earn enough to feed their families.
KENYA: Experts voice food security concerns
NAIROBI Monday, February 22, 2010 (IRIN) - Bumper harvests being reported in several east African countries will do little to improve long-term food security in countries like Kenya, where almost six million of its 38 million inhabitants receive some form of food aid. This is a result of infrastructural weaknesses, five failed rainy seasons, low production, high prices, conflict in pastoral areas and the continuing disruption caused by post-election violence in early 2008.
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