Market Information
UN urges La Niña
preparedness in Africa
More than 60mn people have been affected by El Niño
number of people affected by the combined impacts of
and many more are highly vulnerable to La Niña's likely
the El Niño/La Niña could top 100mn.
knock-on effect, a meeting of UN agencies at the FAO
Participants at the meeting noted that almost US$4bn is
headquarters revealed.
required to meet the humanitarian demands of El Niño-
In wake of the devastating effects of El Niño, United
affected countries and that almost 80 per cent of this is
Nations leaders called for combined efforts by
for food security and agricultural needs.
governments and the international community to prevent
The meeting announced that the FAO, IFAD and WFP are
human suffering, strengthen resilience and safeguard
redoubling efforts to mitigate the negative impacts and
livelihoods.
capitalise on positive opportunities of a likely La Niña
More than 60mn people worldwide, about 40mn in East
phenomenon by acting decisively to prepare for above-
and Southern Africa alone, are projected to be food
average rainfall in some areas and potential drought
insecure due to the impact of the El Niño climate event.
conditions in others.
The Horn of Africa and Southern Africa have been hit the
Participants noted that in southern Africa a three-month
hardest in the continent.
'window of opportunity' exists before the 2016/17
The heads of the three Rome-based UN agencies, FAO,
planting season begins and that adequate interventions,
IFAD and WFP, urged greater preparedness to deal with
including agricultural input distributions are urgently
the possible occurrence later this year of a La Niña
needed to avoid the dependence of millions of rural
climate event, which could lead to above average rainfall
families on humanitarian assistance programmes well
and flooding in areas affected by El Niño-related drought.
into 2018.
The UN estimates that without the necessary action, the
www.farmersreviewafrica.com
[29]FARMERS
REVIEW AFRICA
July - August 2016