Niger - Drought and Locusts
Regional Team: SWAN
Date: 07/01/2005
Brief Description: The combined effects of drought and desert locust infestation in 2004 negatively impacted Niger’s pasture and cereal production, resulting in a food security crisis in the agro-pastoral and pastoral zones. In an average year, children in communities in pastoral and agro-pastoral zones routinely face levels of acute malnutrition that approach emergency thresholds. During the April to August lean season, high annual global acute malnutrition in children under five years of age and chronic malnutrition—reported at 61 percent by Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) in Maradi and Zinder regions—are evidence of the chronic food insecurity in these areas. Combined with conditions that contribute to chronic food insecurity, drought and locust infestation have led to levels of malnutrition and mortality that exceed internationally accepted thresholds for emergency conditions in a number of communities in Niger’s pastoral and agro-pastoral areas.
FY2005
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