ABSTRACT
1. The food crises in Niger are structural, mainly related to the performance of the agricultural sector. The agricultural sector is dominant and is characterised by stagnation in production due to natural, human, technical and political obstacles. This often lead to food crises even famine and starvation. . In recent years, several occurrences of their resurgence were recorded. Measures taken and strategies implemented so far have failed to prevent or mitigate these food crises.
2. The paper aims firstly at assessing the policies conducted to achieve the goal of food security. The analysis is based on historical data covering the period 1967-2007. The second goal was to identify the factors of food crises. The result highlights several factors of food crisis: lack of investment, climate, population, grain prices and productivity. These variables are tested to measure the impact of actions aimed at attaining food security. The results establish a strong correlation between famine and deficit of grain production. Diversification, irrigation, land regeneration techniques among other actions have been shown to mitigate the effects of low production due to rain fall uncertainties.
3. The paper proposes to adopt a comprehensive food security policy to be implemented on the short, medium and long terms. The short term component will endeavour to give the state the means to intervene in emergency situation. In the medium term the accent should be on increasing food production by mean of irrigation. In the long term issues of environmental degradation shall be addressed to reclaim land lost to desertification.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1. INTRODUCTION
The inability of man to meet his food needs has continued to pose challenges to his livelihood and survival. This could be as the result of harsh natural conditions or due to social and economic factors. Governments’ role is to provide an environment conducive for citizens to meet their food demands. Failure to achieve that goal can lead to social disturbances and economic crises. The consequences of these crises are deterioration in living conditions and the advent of poverty and sometimes hunger.
Poverty and hunger, when occurring at a large scale and for an extended period of time, lead to famine. Recurring onsets of famine are a serious food security threat for Niger. The issue concerns the larger portion of the population living from agricultural activities. In Niger, as in other African countries especially those in the Sahel, agriculture is suffering from climate instability, lack of adequate infrastructure and bad economic policies. Other obstacles to rural economic progress include; Increase in food demand by a growing population, urbanization which is emptying rural areas from workforce, absence of bank credit support for agriculture, reluctance by, or inability of, the State to invest in agriculture.
Succession of bad crop years prevents farmers from generating a stable cash flow and substantial savings to finance productive investment. The immediate consequence is the increased dependency on food imports on one hand(GON Annual report, 2008:29) and international emergency aid on the other hand. In Niger, deficits can reach record levels of 600,000 tons corresponding to 80% of deficit (Ibidem, 29). Over the period between 1980 and 2010, the gap between demand and supply indicates an average rate deficit of 22% per year (Ibid 29).The gap is thus wide and permanent. By weakening the nutritional status of the population, the recurrence of deficits reduces the ability to produce. The drop in productivity leads to even larger deficits, making savings impossible at a moment when health problems due to nutritional deficiencies increase financial needs.
