34 countries don’t have enough food for their people due to conflicts: UN

UN report says 34 countries, nearly 80 percent of them in Africa, don’t have enough food for their people because of conflicts, drought and flooding.

Deteriorating Food Situation:

• The Food and Agriculture Organization’s Crop Prospects and Food Situation report said conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and the Central African Republic.
• The Survey have taken a heavy toll on agricultural production, worsening the humanitarian crisis in those countries especially with El Nino has “sharply reduced” 2016 Corp production prospects in Southern Africa.
• Almost 100,000 refugees have reached Congo from Central African Republic but conflict in the east where an estimated 1.5 million people are displaced and flooding related to El Nino which has affected about half a million people.

The Rising Number of Countries:

• The number of countries needing outside food assistance grew from 33 in December, after the addition of Swaziland where El Nino-associated drought conditions have sharply lowered 2016 crop production prospects.

Countries on the list facing food shortages include 

Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Nepal.

• The report said elsewhere, the outlook for 2016 crops already in the ground, mostly winter grains in the northern hemisphere, is generally favorable and early forecasts indicate large wheat crops in most Asian countries.
• Food and Agriculture’s first forecast for wheat production in 2016 is 723 million tons. That’s 10 million tons below the record output in 2015.