A prolonged dry spell and high temperatures ravaged Swaziland’s maize crop in 2007, resulting in the lowest annual harvest on record, worsening the chronic food insecurity in the country. The chronic food insecurity persists throughout the country owing to declining income-earning opportunities and remittances, high levels of unemployment, and the impact of HIV/AIDS. Swaziland requires international assistance to feed approximately 25 percent of its most vulnerable people, including orphans, child-headed households, households affected by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and children needing school feeding. More than two-thirds of Swaziland's 1.2 million people live on less than US$1 a day. Life expectancy has dipped to 33 years, from 49 years in 1975, mainly because of HIV/AIDS. The pandemic has erased almost all post-independence strides made in healthcare.

 

CERF enables life-saving food security projects in Swaziland

CERF has allocated approximately US$ 1.6 million to the WFP and US$ 1.54 million to FAO to help people in dire need of food, after a devastating combination of drought, hail and windstorms hit Swaziland in 2006 and 2007, resulting in the lowest annual harvest in more than 15 years.  

In May 2007, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) carried out a joint Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CFSAM) in Swaziland.  According to the report issued on 23 May, the maize production in the 2006/2007 agricultural season reached only 26,170 tonnes, almost 60 percent lower than the previous season.  About 407,000 vulnerable people, including orphans, children under five, school kids, malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women, and persons on antiretroviral therapy (ART), are in dire need of some 40,000 tonnes of food assistance to meet their basic food needs and to protect their livelihood until the next harvest.

Seventy percent of the world's hungry live in rural areas. [Photo: J. Cendon/FAO]

Maize production in Swaziland has been on a steady decline for the past decade. Until 2000, Swaziland was in a normal agricultural season harvesting more than 100,000 tonnes of maize. Since then the average has steadily dropped to around 70,000 tonnes, a production still three times higher than the current harvest.  Erratic weather, the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS and a decline in the use of improved agricultural practices and inputs are among the factors contributing to this decline.  Swaziland has in addition the highest adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the world, estimated at 42.6 percent. Surveys show that affected families farm less and grow less food than non-affected families.

With the CERF grant, WFP will purchase and distribute 2,628 tonnes of assorted commodities such as cereals, pulses and oil, to meet the short term food needs of 145,000 people suffering from the effects of the latest drought.  WFP has been distributing food to some 220,000 beneficiaries since the beginning of 2007, but this pipeline has dried up by the end of June. The project is covering the areas of Lowveld, Lubombo Plateau and Dry Middleveld.

The CERF allocation of US$ 1.54 million will enable FAO to conduct input trade fairs (ITFs), complementing WFP’s efforts to provide food aid.  The input trade fairs include the timely provision of farming equipment in the most affected areas, provision of portable and agricultural water to affected areas, improving farming practices to counter negative effects of climate change, and to promote crops and livestock systems that are more suitable in the existing climate.   Up to 30,000 households (an estimated 325,000 beneficiaries) in 26 of the driest constituencies (Tinkhundla) will be receiving vouchers to purchase a variety of seeds, fertilizers, agricultural agriculture tools and equipment of their choice, available at the input trade fairs.

 

[Last Update: 11 July 2007]

 

A winner: Input trade fairs boost harvests in Swaziland