Harvest Assessment of Cereal Production. Famine Early Warning System (FEWS). Contains Reports on: Mauritania, Mali, Burkina, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Ethiopia

摘要

The 1990 main-season harvests in the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS)-monitored countries were generally similar to, or worse than, the mediocre 1989 main-season harvests. Areas within each country that had the worst harvests last year have generally been hard-hit this year as well. Coping mechanisms and reserves have already been drawn down in dealing with the poor 1989 harvest. Affected people will be hard pressed to compensate again for extremely poor production. The problems of drought and poor agricultural production are being matched in their impact on food security by civil conflict, indifferent or hostile local authorities, and deteriorating economic environments. Nevertheless, where there are current problems, the immediate impacts are but a pale shadow of what would occur should the 1991 agricultural season be poor. One more poor harvest may elevate these local problems to national disasters.