FLOOD LEAVES MADAGASCAR HUNGRY

Ankazomanga — Faravavy, 32,
lives in the middle of an arid
plain 150km south of Betioke in
southern Madagascar. She tries
to support herself and her three
children by cultivating maize, red
beans and manioc, but is unable
to grow enough to generate an
income or even to feed her family
year-round.
"We never have any crops to sell.
We eat everything we produce,"
she told IRIN.
During the lean season, which
runs from October to March -
when new crops are planted but
not yet harvested - Faravavy and
her youngest children go out to
the forest to dig up roots. "It's
hard. You have to dig deep to get
them out, and they taste very bad
if the rains haven't come yet. I
leave at seven in the morning
and come back in the afternoon,
and we just have enough to eat
in the evening. Then the next
day, we go again."
Faravavy's village, Ankazomanga,
used to be close to the forest, but
as more trees have been cut
down, villagers have had to walk
farther and farther to find food.
"When I was small, we lived
better than my kids do now," she
said. "There was rain and always
enough to eat."
Erratic weather and a locust
plague have taken a toll on
Madagascar's rice and maize
harvests this year, leaving as
many as 4 million people - 28
percent of households - in rural
areas food insecure, according to
a recent World Food Program
(WFP)/Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) report. A
further 9.6 million people are
estimated to be at risk of food
insecurity.
Steep crop declines
The joint Crop and Food Security
Assessment Mission, conducted
in June and July by WFP and FAO,
attributed the poor agricultural
season to a combination of
factors including flooding caused
by Cyclone Haruna earlier this
year, followed by a period of
poor rains.
This is what happened in
Ankazomanga. "Our fields were
flooded in February when
cyclone Haruna came. Since then,
there has been no more rain,"
Faravavy said.
"We used to harvest 15 carts full
of manioc. This year, we barely
filled up one," she added,
pointing to a small pile of manioc
roots drying on her roof. "There,
that's it. That's all we harvested
this year."
According to the WFP/FAO report,
rice production declined by 21
percent this year, resulting in a
significant national rice deficit.
Maize production is also down
and an estimated 28,000 metric
tons of maize will need to be imported to meet domestic needs.