The hungriest people in the world??

ANALYSIS
By Diane Uwimana
The level of hunger in Burundi is "extremely alarming"
according to the International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI). In this light, it might seem surprising that
the government recently withdrew BIF 900 million from the
agricultural sector.
The IFPRI combines three equally weighted indicators: the
proportion of people who are undernourished, the proportion
of children under five who are underweight, and the
mortality rate of children under five. With a food
consumption of 1600 Kcal per person per day, Burundi is
the lowest consumer of the sub region. Micronutrient
deficiencies constitute a real public health risk in Burundi.
According to the most recent health demographic survey
(EDS 2010) 45% of children younger than five years have
anaemia.
Arecent global analysis on food security, nutrition and
vulnerability conducted by the World Food Program (WFP)
in May 2014, shows that around 816 214Burundian children
under five years suffer from chronic malnutrition, of which
332 098 are severe cases. A further 79 453 suffer from
acute malnutrition, noting 12 197 severe cases in Burundi.
According to Gaston Nkeshimana, a nutrition program
officer for the WFP, malnutrition also includes excessive
consumption of dietary energy from macronutrients, such as
fats and carbohydrates. It is therefore also related to
obesity.
In the survey conducted by WFP, there are some
determinants that indicate food insecurity such as the rate
of population growth, small areas of land per farming
household (0, 52ha), over-exploitation of soils, declining
fertility and soil quality, low use of fertilizer (28%), low
irrigation despite abundance in water (only 3% of
agricultural land was irrigated (in 2011) and erosion of the
purchasing power of households, particularly because the
relatively high inflation rate.
"Burundians are poor"
The Burundian Government has taken several steps by
including the inclusion of food security and nutrition on the
political agenda through the strategic framework of growth
and the fightagainst poverty. During the "Nutrition for
growth" meeting held in London in June 2013 the
Government of Burundi made strong commitments. One of
which is to reduce chronic malnutrition in children by 10
percent(from 58% to 48%) before 2017. To achieve this,
Burundi will implement several nutrition interventions.
Despite the current state on malnutrition and starvation, the
president has recently signed a decree withdrawing BIF 900
million from the agricultural budget and transferred it to the
election process. Odette Kayitesi, the Minister of Agriculture
and Livestock dismisses the worry about the budget move,
stating that it is only a small part of her general budget and
the lack of funds is not to blame for Burundi's top position
in the Global Hunger Index. "Burundian people are poor and
do not have money to buy what they don't cultivate. Their
purchasing power is weak", she explains.
Without going into details, she refers to other sectors that
fail to generate income for the rural poor. "Even tourism
revenue doesn't trickle down to the population, while
unemployment gains ground."