Global News Post: Food Security

Ghana Introduces Drought-Tolerant Maize to Improve Food Security

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">An NNN-GNA Feature by Audrey Dekalu<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">ACCRA</span></st1:city></st1:place><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (NNN-GNA) -- To Aba Antobam, a
subsistence Farmer, maize is her life blood. The crop is her main source of
income to cater for every need of her family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">However, buying improved maize seeds such as
hybrid varieties is a huge gamble for <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Aba</st1:place></st1:city>
since the rainy season could be erratic, leading to unforeseen loss of income
and capital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">In response to these challenges, in March
2010, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ghana</st1:place></st1:country-region>
introduced a drought-tolerant maize which is high yielding and affordable to
manage food security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The varieties were collaboratively developed
by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ghana</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s Council
for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Crops Research Institute and the
Savanna Agricultural Research Institute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Manfred Ewool, the lead scientist and a
maize breeder at CSIR, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the
farmers have welcomed the new varieties and have given them local names to
denote their characteristics and importance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">They are CSIR-Omankwa (giver of life), CSIR
Aburohemaa, (Queen mother of maize), CSIR-Abontem (extra early maize) and
CSIR-Enii Pibi (father’s child).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Ewool explained that it has taken an average
of more than 10 years, to reach millions of Ghanaians with improved
drought-tolerant maize varieties.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He said events such as the severe floods and
drought of 2007, coupled with unpredicted rainfall patterns and harsh weather
conditions caused by climate change and a rise in global food and fuel prices
have cumulatively heightened the already existing vulnerabilities among people
and communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Food security exists when all people, at all
times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and
nutritious food, which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Household food security is the application
of the concept to the family level, with individuals within households as the
focus of concern.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Statistics show that a total of 1.2 million
Ghanaians have limited access to sufficient and nutritious food throughout the
year, while another two million are at risk or becoming food insecure during
the lean season or at the onset of a natural or man-made disaster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">These figures constitute between five to 10
per cent of the total population, but the majority of people at risk of food
insecurity are concentrated in Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions
(Provinces).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Ghana</span></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> ranked 68th out of 105 countries
and third in sub-Saharan Africa after <st1:country-region w:st="on">South
 Africa</st1:country-region> (40th) and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Botswana</st1:place></st1:country-region> (47th) with an overall
score of 43.1 out of a possible score of 100. This called for something urgent
to be done to stem the tide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">With the development of new techniques, all
existing tools to improve agricultural productivity such as biotechnology
deserve careful consideration and should be made available for farmers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Professor Eric Danquah, Director of the West
Africa Centre for Crop Improvement at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Ghana</st1:placename></st1:place>,
said sub-Saharan African governments had paid only lip service to funding
scientific research.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He called on the government of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ghana</st1:place></st1:country-region> to invest
in the training of a critical mass of scientists in addition to providing the
necessary infrastructure for agricultural development in research institutions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Since maize will remain a crucial part of
the food security equation even while the agricultural economies of the region
diversify, continued investments in both maize research and market institutions
are essential.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">It is therefore important for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ghana</st1:place></st1:country-region> to adapt
local food production in order to manage food security and to address the
uncertainties and threats facing farming communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The country must also explore ways of
combating food insecurity posed by climate change. -- NNN-GNA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>

Ghana Introduces Drought-Tolerant Maize to Improve Food Security

An NNN-GNA Feature by Audrey Dekalu ACCRA (NNN-GNA) -- To Aba Antobam, a subsistence Farmer, maize is her life blood. The crop is he...

EGYPT: Poor Hit Hardest As Political Tensions Persist

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6A3JcJHtcegGs3_oZEvX7IIv7QaLo57sKmZA5ui0Qa8yxtuSaHmGbRME_zqfovg57i1EVpAgGOcRBY5rcHk0rc3MyGw5EzdknCMqPZIn_qfBbhuUXRmKtUxA_Y54tlh-qIShqbH3Oq9c/s1600/201112071014390671.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6A3JcJHtcegGs3_oZEvX7IIv7QaLo57sKmZA5ui0Qa8yxtuSaHmGbRME_zqfovg57i1EVpAgGOcRBY5rcHk0rc3MyGw5EzdknCMqPZIn_qfBbhuUXRmKtUxA_Y54tlh-qIShqbH3Oq9c/s1600/201112071014390671.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Photo: <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Amr Emam/IRIN</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Prices are going up<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:city w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">GIZA</span></st1:city><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (IRIN) - For the first time in
months, Hussein Mohamed, a 50-year-old civil servant from the Giza Governorate
neighbourhood of Imbaba, northern <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cairo</st1:place></st1:city>,
has had to tell his wife that he can no longer put food on the table. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Mohamed used to find ways to get by on the
small salary he receives, but with soaring food prices this is becoming
increasingly tough. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“I find it hard to say that I can’t feed my
family, but this is the reality,” Mohamed, an administrative worker from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Cairo</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
told IRIN. “I am so tired and feel that I won’t be able to keep going.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Food prices in November were up 5.3 percent
on the same month last year, while market traders reported a doubling of many
prices since the summer for basics like onions, rice and pasta. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Mohamed and millions of vulnerable Egyptians
are coming to learn a painful lesson: they are the first to pay the price of
continued political tensions which have brought with <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Egypt started a new phase of political and
security turmoil on 22 November when its first democratically elected
president, Mohamed Morsi, issued a decree to exempt his decisions from judicial
scrutiny, and tensions persisted as millions voted in a controversial
constitutional plebiscite this month. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Egyptians’ food security is in real peril,”
Rashad Abdo, an economics professor from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Cairo</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
told IRIN. “Our country imports most of its food. The problem is that our
foreign currency reserves - necessary for buying this food from other countries
- are hitting rock bottom.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Egypt</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">’s foreign currency reserves
dropped to US$15 billion by the end of November, from US$36.1 billion on the
eve of the popular uprising that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak early
last year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Economists like Abdo say these reserves will
allow the government to buy food for the people for three months only. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“This means that our country is galloping on
the road to an economic crisis at best, bankruptcy and famine at worst,” he
said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Last week the government confirmed it would
be importing 180,000 tons of wheat from the USA - being one of the world’s
biggest wheat importers is a big strain on reserves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Gloom <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">As debates around the constitution rage,
economic issues are increasingly prominent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Factories are closing down, poverty is
rising and a large number of people are losing their jobs,” Victor Fikry,
deputy chairman of Catholic charity Caritas <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region> told IRIN. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The charity says that in the last few months
it has seen the number of people demanding small loans rise, but also a halving
of donations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Khaled Waked, a 49-year-old father of two,
used to think his job at a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background: #AABBDC; border: solid #336699 1.0pt; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; margin-left: 6.0pt; margin-right: 6.0pt; margin-top: -.75pt; mso-border-alt: solid #336699 .75pt; mso-cellspacing: 0cm; mso-padding-alt: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-bspace: 6.0pt; mso-table-left: right; mso-table-lspace: 8.25pt; mso-table-rspace: 8.25pt; mso-table-top: middle; mso-table-tspace: 1.5pt; width: 220px;">
 <tbody>
<tr>
  <td style="border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;">
  <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: white; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 9.0pt;"><img alt="''" height="18" src="file:///C:/Users/Zainab/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image001.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025" width="23" /></span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: white; font-family: Tahoma;">I find it hard to say that I can’t
  feed my family, but this is the reality</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: white; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 9.0pt;"><img alt="''" height="18" src="file:///C:/Users/Zainab/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image002.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1026" width="23" /><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>–
  Mohamed, university worker<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
 </tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">calibration company was safe, after two
decades at the company. A few months ago, however, he was made redundant
because the company had no money to pay him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“I don’t know which way to turn,” Waked
said. “The economy suffers and this means that jobs are rare. But suppose there
are openings, who will hire an old man like me?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">There is no official estimate about the
number of Egyptians like Waked who lost their jobs in the months that followed
the revolution, but the African Development Bank says unemployment rose to 12.6
percent of the workforce (3.4 million people) in the second quarter of 2012.
(Arabic) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Another sector hit by the political turmoil
is tourism, which normally accounts for about 11 percent of gross domestic
product (GDP) and “is the most important source of foreign exchange earnings
for the national income at 20%.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Economists, however, say the worst may be
yet to come. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“An economic crisis means that jobs will
become scarcer and prices higher,” said Yumn Al Hamaky, an economics professor
from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Ain</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Shams</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
“At the end of the day you will have more people who cannot satisfy the most
basic of their needs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Around 25.2 percent of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s 83
million people were in poverty in 2010-2011, compared with 21.6 percent in
2008-2009, according to the Egyptian government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A rapidly growing budget deficit, now at 170
billion pounds ($27.5 billion) and expected to rise to 200 billion pounds
($32.3 billion) soon, does not bode well for the future, Al Hamaky said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Mismanagement <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Economists blame the economic downturn on
poor economic management and a lack of clear economic policies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The government seeks to reduce the budget
deficit to 8.5 percent from 11 percent of GDP by the end of fiscal year
2013-2014. To do this, it has taken several measures, including slashing the
subsidies on fuel for expensive cars and factories, but at the same time
raising the price of electricity and gas cylinders. (Arabic) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“All these measures will end up harming the
poor, rather than the rich,” said economist Alia Al Mahdy. “Factories that pay
more for fuel, for example, will raise the prices of their commodities and this
will harm the poor even more.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The government decided on 10 December to
raise taxes on dozens of commodities and services, including fuel, cigarettes,
mobile phone communication, and fertilizers, causing uproar and spreading fear
across this country. A few hours later, however, the president suspended the
decision. (Arabic) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">In a comic, but also bitter, expression of
public outrage at the state of confusion that grips government policies, a pop
singer has recently ridiculed the president in a hit in which she says the
president takes decisions in the morning, only to cancel them in the evening.
(Arabic) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">But this is no laughing matter for people
like Mohamed, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Cairo</st1:placename>
 <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place> administrative
worker. When he went to the vegetable market a few hours after the president
suspended the tax rise, he discovered that the prices of almost all vegetables
and fruit had doubled. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“I bought one kilo of green pepper for 2.5
pounds (40 US cents) only one day before the government announced its decision
to raise the taxes,” Mohamed said. “The next time I went to the market, the
price reached five pounds. The same thing happened with all other vegetables
and fruit, even as the president suspended the decision.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Mohamed, whose salary is 1,800 pounds
($291), says rising prices oblige him to stop buying certain food items and
stick only to the basics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“I give up one more items every day,” he
said. “I am sure I will continue to do this until nothing more is left for me
and my family to eat.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>

EGYPT: Poor Hit Hardest As Political Tensions Persist

Photo: Amr Emam/IRIN Prices are going up GIZA (IRIN) - For the first time in months, Hussein Mohamed, a 50-year-old civil serva...

CLIMATE CHANGE: Fungi Offer Non-GM Way to Enhance Food Crops

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwH6zsCtETo5BADiUUxMXYGr0aHPHNRgbiYpJBQQBgHXB0HDUR7GtxIzr-hCDb64OQbaLDMIII1g9vRl-o6Uyee-uQzmFMouLsBA0tuSyheYqFwlklRQlVy8jtwN4_CVSwY877cS5TwI/s1600/201205151222210806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwH6zsCtETo5BADiUUxMXYGr0aHPHNRgbiYpJBQQBgHXB0HDUR7GtxIzr-hCDb64OQbaLDMIII1g9vRl-o6Uyee-uQzmFMouLsBA0tuSyheYqFwlklRQlVy8jtwN4_CVSwY877cS5TwI/s1600/201205151222210806.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantstoriesproject/6931910350/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Plant Stories Project</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">Race is on to find ways to be able to produce enough</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">JOHANNESBURG</span></st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (IRIN) - As temperatures soar and droughts
increase in frequency, scientists around the world are working to create food
crops tolerant of extreme temperatures - often an expensive and laborious
process. But a cheaper and quicker alternative could be in sight, new research
suggests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Fungi
and other microbes could enable food crops like maize, wheat and rice to grow
in high temperatures and salty soils, and even withstand erratic rainfall, say
microbiologists, who have begun to look at the relationship between plants and
micro-organisms for clues to their mutual survival through thousands of years
of climate change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Making
food crops tolerant to climatic stresses could be as simple as coating seeds
with micro-organisms that can confer desired traits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A
matter of urgency<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Helping
food crops weather climate change is a matter of urgency, said experts from 15
research centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research’s (CGIAR) Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food
Security. The programme had been asked by the UN to summarize the effects of
climate change on 22 of the most important agriculture crops, from staple
cereals to potatoes, lentils and commercial fruit crops like bananas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Time
is of the essence, as droughts have already become more frequent and rainfall
more erratic in various parts of the world. By 2050, climate change could cause
irrigated wheat yields in developing countries to fall by 13 percent, says a
CGIAR review by senior scientist Philip Thornton. Irrigated rice yield could
fall by as much as 15 percent. In <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, many
farmers of maize could lose 10 to 20 percent of their yields. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">We
have always thought that plants had learned to adapt to climatic stresses like
high temperatures and drought, but now we find that microbiomes [communities of
microbes] within plants have conferred traits on them to be able to withstand
the stressSome temperature-tolerant new crops are already being grown in Asia, developed
by subjecting grain plants to stresses such as drought conditions, then
isolating genes from those that survive. But this kind of conventional breeding
is long-drawn process, often taking 10 to 15 years to develop a successful crop
variant. It is widely used because many Asian and African countries do not
accept genetically modified (GM) products. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Micro-organisms
could provide a faster option. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Microbiomes
aid survival <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"We
have always thought that plants had learned to adapt to climatic stresses like
high temperatures and drought, but now we find that microbiomes [communities of
microbes] within plants have conferred traits on them to be able to withstand
the stress," said Rusty Rodriguez, a microbiologist affiliated with the
University of Washington, who recently established his own non-profit
organization (Symbiogenics) to conduct more research into the plant-microbe
symbiosis.  <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Human
and plant life is intertwined with that of micro-organisms. A human body
contains more bacteria than human cells; in several studies published this year,
members of the Human Microbiome Project reported that microbes "contribute
more genes responsible for human survival" than humans themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
new plant studies show that microbiomes are similarly crucial in the plant
world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Scientific
American reported in 2010 that Mary Lucero, a molecular biologist at the US
Department of Agriculture, had found fungi could help plants capture more
nitrogen from the atmosphere, reducing the need to apply chemical fertilizers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">More
recently, Rodriguez and his team have shown how a certain fungus, when
introduced to the seeds of maize, wheat, tomatoes, watermelons and other plants,
enabled those plants to withstand more than 50-degree Celsius temperatures. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">‘Results
within a year’ <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Rodriguez
says he took fungi from plants near the <st1:city w:st="on">hot springs</st1:city>
in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region>’s <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Yellowstone</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">National Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>. The stress tolerance
traits are only found in microbes found in those conditions; the same fungus
isolated from a non-stressed condition do not have those traits. His teams have
also undertaken missions to collect fungi from extreme conditions in the
Antarctic, Mount Everest in the Himalayas and the <st1:placename w:st="on">Great
 Basin</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype> in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Rodriguez
said he and his team could likely find similar microbes in any part of the
world - for instance, in the <st1:place w:st="on">Sahel</st1:place> - and
conduct trials within the region to isolate the useful microbes. "We could
have results within a year," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He
has already conducted trials in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> with maize and rice, and found
that yields can grow up to 10 percent in the case of rice in cold temperatures,
and up to 80 percent in the case of maize in high temperatures. The team is
awaiting the results of a trial in which maize was grown during the worst
drought to hit the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
in decades. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He
has also isolated a virus in the fungus that makes plants even more resilient
to heat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
plan is to keep the costs of providing the technology to farmers very low.
"Corn in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is sold in 42lbs [about 20 kg] bags. We want to keep the cost of coating the
seeds with microbes to under US$20 [per bag]," said Rodriguez <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Another
peer-reviewed study has shown that certain fungi can make rice plants more
tolerant to drought, salt and even cold while reducing water consumption by 20
to 30 percent. Salt tolerance is a sought-after trait in regions affected by
rising sea-levels and storm surges that cause saltwater intrusion, such as the
rice-growing regions of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Rodriguez
said he and others are looking for opportunities and funding to conduct trials
in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, where this technology is
desperately needed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">This
point was also made by CGIAR’s <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Thornton</st1:place></st1:city>
in his paper Recalibrating Food Production in the Developing World: Global
Warming Will Change More Than Just the Climate, which explores the complexities
of climate change’s impact on crops. Some crops might be able to withstand high
temperature but could be sensitive to changes in rainfall. "Other crops
can tolerate seasonal flooding but are susceptible to new or increased levels
of pests and diseases brought on by high temperatures." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A
variety of changes must take place, including changes to the mix of crops being
grown, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Thornton</st1:place></st1:city>
said in an email to IRIN. Research can help by "showing farmers not only
how to grow new crops but also how to utilize them in different ways (e.g., different
ways of preparing and cooking cassava). The socio-cultural aspects may be
difficult to deal with, but through a combination of market forces (changes in
relative prices of staples) and time, diets may change slowly,” he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><b>Circumventing
controversy? </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Meanwhile,
other researchers are exploring the use of GM to increase crop resilience. But
the safety of GM has been heatedly debated, with many activist groups, governments
and regulatory bodies calling for products containing GM ingredients to carry
special labels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
American Association for the Advancement of Science has recently come out
against labelling requirements. “These efforts are not driven by evidence that
GM foods are actually dangerous. Indeed, the science is quite clear: crop
improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
microbiome studies might offer a way to circumvent these controversies, offering
faster and cheaper solutions without the patina of “mad science” often
attributed to GM products. The journal New Scientist reported this year that, unlike
genetic engineering, which takes years to induce plants to switch various
metabolic pathways to become more drought-tolerant, fungi can activate "them
all in one go." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>

CLIMATE CHANGE: Fungi Offer Non-GM Way to Enhance Food Crops

Photo: Plant Stories Project Race is on to find ways to be able to produce enough JOHANNESBURG (IRIN) - As temperatures soar ...

ETHIOPIA: Food security and the Meles' legacy

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyseGhl7cHspDJBgs6hdheOymPFj5MlP96VS0fIfX-baJB5-1OYB_eDbTvlfM03gTokhhgMmcCrp2mSlme8tgG_OnxeM4y6cX0sXMw4oRP6wupEciNiQAuNjn4Oforp09o3r0x_CoE-Q/s1600/201208221358340295.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyseGhl7cHspDJBgs6hdheOymPFj5MlP96VS0fIfX-baJB5-1OYB_eDbTvlfM03gTokhhgMmcCrp2mSlme8tgG_OnxeM4y6cX0sXMw4oRP6wupEciNiQAuNjn4Oforp09o3r0x_CoE-Q/s320/201208221358340295.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Photo: World Economic Forum<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Meles Zenawi at the World Economic Forum on Africa<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>held in Addis Ababa earlier this year</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">JOHANNESBURG (IRIN) - During his two decades in power, Meles Zenawi committed himself to ending Ethiopia’s dependence on food aid. With his death, IRIN looks at his legacy in promoting food self-sufficency and fighting rural poverty in a country historically associated with drought and environmental stress.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Food security<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Meles' regime is credited with having pioneered schemes designed to protect the poor such as the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP – see below), a Social Cash Transfer Pilot Programme and a commodity exchange.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Between 1998 and 2012 the average number of Ethiopians in need of food assistance fluctuated between 3 million and 14 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Under Meles, Ethiopia's economy, in which agriculture generates 45 percent of GDP and 90 percent of exports, became one of the fastest growing in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The country spends about 17 percent of its public money on agriculture, which employs 85 percent of the population.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopia’s close partnership with key western nations helped ensure it received considerable external funding – it was the fourth largest recipient of official humanitarian aid in 2010 and in 2009 it received the equivalent of 14 percent of its gross national income (GNI) as aid (ODA).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The country has consistently featured among the top 10 recipients of humanitarian aid since 2000, according to data compiled by the UK-based NGO, Development Initiatives.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There are other African countries who have comprehensive and sound plans to make their people food secure in the long-term like Ghana and Saheilian countries like Niger but unfortunately they have not attracted the same amount of funding as Ethiopia has," said Frederic Mousseau, a food security expert and policy director at the US-based Oakland Institute, a think-tank.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another food security analyst, who sought anonymity, cautioned that data pointing to the success of schemes such as the PSNP need to take into account "the absolute control over assessments [food security-related], information about the number of people in need, nutritional status etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The narrative is that the corner [as far as food security is concerned] has been turned, but that is a narrative carefully controlled by the government. Time will tell."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The 2000 food crisis<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There were at least three major droughts during Meles' tenure: 1999/2000, 2002/2003 and 2009/2010. Many food experts regarded the 1999/2000 crisis as a full-fledged famine, but Meles allegedly chose to prioritise a border war with Eritrea. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The donors were angry about it so they didn't respond quickly either - and the result was a famine that could easily have been prevented," said one humanitarian expert, who did not want to be named.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The then UK Secretary for International Development Clare Short was reported by the Guardian as saying, "I do not believe anyone in the UK believes we should be providing long-term assistance to a country which is increasing its spending on arms, year on year" after she was criticized for reducing aid to Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An estimated 19,900 people died in Gode zone alone, in Ethiopia's Somali region, according to a paper by Stephen Devereux and Paul Howe, both researchers at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Productive Safety Net Programme<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Meles always stressed his commitment to making Ethiopians food self-sufficient, said Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a former World Bank economist and the outgoing CEO of the country's first commodity exchange. Out of this was born the idea the PSNP in 2004 - to make families secure enough to be able to produce or buy their own food.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The narrative is that the corner [as far as food security is concerned] has been turned, but that is a narrative carefully controlled by the government. Time will tellThe PSNP aimed to provide support to chronically food insecure families for several months either in the form of cash or food for up to five years, building their resilience and ability to withstand shocks. The families were then considered self-sufficient and would graduate from the programme.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There is little doubt that the Productive Safety Net Programme was a pioneering effort to redress the food insecurity that long characterized many areas of Ethiopia," said Daniel Maxwell, an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in the US. "It was one critical component of the effort to reduce chronic poverty in Ethiopia."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Christopher Barrett, who teaches applied economics at Cornell University, said: "When<o:p></o:p></span></div><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background: #AABBDC; border: solid #336699 1.0pt; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; margin-left: 6.0pt; margin-right: 6.0pt; margin-top: -.75pt; mso-border-alt: solid #336699 .75pt; mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-bspace: 6.0pt; mso-table-left: right; mso-table-lspace: 8.25pt; mso-table-rspace: 8.25pt; mso-table-top: middle; mso-table-tspace: 1.5pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 220px;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">   <td style="border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span dir="LTR" style="color: white; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">    <v:stroke joinstyle="miter">    <v:formulas>     <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0">     <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0">     <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1">     <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2">     <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth">     <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight">     <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1">     <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2">     <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth">     <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0">     <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight">     <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0">    </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas>    <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f">    <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit">   </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype><v:shape alt="''" id="Picture_x0020_43" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" style="height: 13.5pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 17.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="''" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span><b><span dir="LTR" style="color: white; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The narrative is that the corner [as far as food security is   concerned] has been turned, but that is a narrative carefully controlled by   the government. Time will tell</span></b><span dir="LTR" style="color: white; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shape alt="''" id="Picture_x0020_44" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" style="height: 13.5pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 17.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="''" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span><span dir="LTR" style="color: white; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td>  </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Horn of Africa experienced a horrendous drought last year, it wasn’t Ethiopia that experienced famine. The productive safety nets programme launched by his [Meles’] government has generally done a good job of improving standards of living for the least well off Ethiopians and is being studied and emulated by other countries in the region. While there remains much to be done, the progress in Ethiopia during his rule is very palpable and will hopefully continue through a peaceful transition to new leadership."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However, in 2008 food prices soared beyond the point of affordability for those enrolled in the PSNP and the numbers on food aid ballooned.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"One of the flaws of the PSNP was that the cash being offered to the people was too small to help them graduate from the programme," said Mousseau. "The other was it was not supported by other investments needed to help uplift the people from poverty such as infrastructure and access to markets to make any significant impact on their livelihoods."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This opened in 2008 with the aim of helping small farmers gain access to market information and bring buyers and sellers under one roof.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Mr Meles believed that we had to be transparent and not cater to any narrow interest of big commercial farms," said Gabre-Madhin. The exchange, which trades in four commodities - maize, coffee, sesame and beans - provides real-time market information to farmers via a mobile phone text message service and a free phone-in facility.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to Gabre-Madhin, farmers’ share of the final export price of coffee rose from 35-38 percent to 65-70 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Land “grabs” and forced relocations<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The government dismissed critics of its large scale land-leasing policy – part of a five year Growth and Transformation Plan - insisting the millions of dollars of foreign investment involved would create jobs, improve domestic agricultural expertise and reduce both poverty and the country's chronic food insecurity.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to a paper by the Oakland Institute, the policy led to the forcible relocation of indigenous communities to villages in the Gambella and Benishangul regions, where they were told they would be taught new techniques to produce food. Their land is being leased out by the government to multinationals in Saudi Arabia and India. The Institute's research showed that more than three million hectares of land had been leased out to investors.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"In recent years, the Meles regime has shifted its focus to big commercial enterprises at the cost of the local indigenous communities and even the pastoral population in the Afar region," said Mousseau.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This prompted an Ethiopian economist, Aklog Birara, living in the US to lodge a protest with the Indian government in May this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Today, Ethiopia is an 'empty womb'. Millions of hectares of its most fertile farmlands and the waters and rivers that give them sustenance are given away in a scheme that we can only characterize as ‘farmland colonization by invitation.’ Indian companies are taking over for 25 to 99 years duration at the invitation of Mr Meles’ government,” he wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dawit Alemu, an agricultural economist with the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research believes commercial farming has contributed to the country's booming growth. "Moreover, huge irrigation projects linked with hydropower are under implementation, which are expected to ensure food security in the very near future.” But such projects have also come under fire from activists who claim they threaten the livelihoods of thousands of people.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Now, the question is whether we will have a person who will ensure the implementation and finalization of all these efforts that have started," added Dawit.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

ETHIOPIA: Food security and the Meles' legacy

Photo: World Economic Forum Meles Zenawi at the World Economic Forum on Africa held in Addis Ababa earlier this year JOHANNESBURG (IRI...

SYRIA: Anticipating Hunger, Food Insecurity as Violent Conflict Escalates

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">BEIRUT (NNN-IRIN) -- The fields in the fertile al Ghab plain stretching across eastern Syria would normally be full of crops at this time of year, but this summer some are lying fallow (www.irinnews.org). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The army has deployed in the fields, and there are checkpoints around our village," said Muhammad al-Ashab (not his real name), a farmer in al Madeeq Citadel. "Sometimes the soldiers let us pass, sometimes they don't." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some farmers, he said, have not been able to plant anything. Others suffered losses as their crops withered, either because they could not access them regularly, or they were lacking the means necessary to attend to them. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The violent conflict in Syria appears to be hampering agriculture. Farmers are struggling with obstructions due to intermittent fighting as well as soaring prices of farming supplies and shortages of diesel. The fuel is needed not only for tractors and harvesters, but also for pumps to water the fields. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Fertilizers and insecticides have become so expensive that people have had difficulties affording them," said al-Ashab. "Diesel is hardly available, and if we find any, we pay three times as much as we used to." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As a result, the farmers in his village harvested only half of the usual amount of wheat this year. "Most families depend on farming, and now many are left with no income. We had to let go of all our workers on our farm because we couldn't pay them any more," he added. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Differing assessments <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A somewhat contrasting picture is presented in a detailed USDA report on June 12 which says that wheat yields look "favourable" despite the conflict. This analysis said food security, especially in urban areas, is compromised more by a breakdown in distribution than a drop in production. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The unknown element in the situation is how the rural community which is dispersed across the extent of the country's grain growing regions is coping, and whether the conflict will in any way affect their ability to successfully harvest and market the 2012 winter grain crop." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Meanwhile, influential French forecaster Strategie Grains, quoted by Reuters, said it had slashed its harvest estimate for Syria's 2012 crop for soft and durum wheat by 900,000 tons to 2.5 million tons. That compared with a harvest of 3.3 million tons in 2011. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The main producer regions are very much at the centre of the civil war and although it is difficult to evaluate the impact this will have on the harvest, a significant disruption seems certain," the firm said in a May report. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While the ongoing crisis may be preventing farmers from working, food prices have tripled in parts of seven provinces in Syria, according to a Humanitarian Bulletin published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) covering July 6-19. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Livelihoods at risk <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There are whole groups of rural people, farmers, livestock herders and migrant agricultural workers whose livelihoods are at risk of collapse," said Jens Laerke, an OCHA spokesman in Geneva. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As the conflict escalates (the International Committee of the Red Cross last week said it was more and more resembling a non-international armed conflict) food insecurity is spreading throughout the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The problem is big, it is acute, and it is growing", said Laerke. Some one million people have been displaced inside Syria, according to OCHA's Humanitarian Bulletin. The World Food Programme is currently providing food aid to half a million people in the country, and hopes to reach 850,000 next month. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Agriculture is one of the most important industry sectors, making up 30 percent of Syria's GDP," said Samer Seifan, a prominent Syrian economist who used to work as an adviser to the government. "The uprising is spread all over Syria; all major areas of agriculture have been affected," he added. He reckons the wheat harvest will amount to only 1.9 million tons this year. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Before the uprising, Syria produced an average of four million tons annually and relied on imports to cover its need for 7-8 million tons. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With shops burnt or looted and transport roads blocked, basic food items have been difficult to obtain for months in protest hubs such as Homs or Hama. In Damascus, grocery stores were relatively well stocked till recently. But since rebel fighters infiltrated the capital last week, the surge of violence has also started triggering shortages: "Fighting was less heavy today, so many people ventured outside after more than a week and went to the market," said a young lawyer in the city centre, Ashraf al-Nasr (not his real name). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Milk and yoghurt are not available in many places, and prices have skyrocketed, particularly for fresh vegetables. Cucumbers, for example, used to cost 35 lira, or even less. Now they are about 125 lira," said al-Nasr. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Crops burned <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In many rural areas, however, severe problems of supply are approaching a critical stage. People in villages deemed to support the uprising have been disproportionately affected, as their crops have in some cases been burned, activists and farmers in different areas say. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Some of our fields caught fire during the shelling. Some were torched by the soldiers as punishment because we shelter defectors," said Hamid Rasul (not his real name), a farmer from the village of Halfaya in Ghab plain. "I had planted wheat, but my fields were among those destroyed by the fire. I have lost everything, just before it was time to harvest." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The farmers' market in Halfaya is closed most of the time, he said. Many shops have been vandalized or looted, and people are sharing what food they have left. "It won't last long. In summer, we usually store potatoes and wheat for the winter. But now, we have nothing to store. We are anticipating hunger." -- NNN-IRIN</span></div>

SYRIA: Anticipating Hunger, Food Insecurity as Violent Conflict Escalates

BEIRUT (NNN-IRIN) -- The fields in the fertile al Ghab plain stretching across eastern Syria would normally be full of crops at this tim...

Analysis: Madagascar's Unforgiving Bandit Lands

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6jP1c4GsNlOTt3lT8iEoqHG-byoUQz2dmKWe2NabN80B8tfeza_3ZIs2MOKGRL8519puZ50esmnstUTijsMPzoNGveKKEc7-2EVS9f8Pvk1PSubcWuWzgMbSCt4PLGx3CjFAbnAqWHk/s1600/201106081111050562.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6jP1c4GsNlOTt3lT8iEoqHG-byoUQz2dmKWe2NabN80B8tfeza_3ZIs2MOKGRL8519puZ50esmnstUTijsMPzoNGveKKEc7-2EVS9f8Pvk1PSubcWuWzgMbSCt4PLGx3CjFAbnAqWHk/s1600/201106081111050562.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Photo © IRIN<o:p></o:p></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">AMBOTRAGANO (IRIN) - It took two years for Zakamihaingo Razafindranoivo, 37, to raise US$900 to replace his two stolen zebu (Madagascar’s distinctive and prized hump-backed cattle) by selling vegetables and spices grown on his plot in Ambotragano, a village about 20km north of the capital Antananarivo. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“At 9am I checked them [the zebu] and they were still there, and two hours later they were gone,” he told IRIN. “I need them to do the work in the field, to pull the cart and to produce fertilizer. These animals are important.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Razafindranoivo and community volunteers tracked the cattle rustlers for three days before giving up the chase. They say the theft of livestock and food have ticked up since 2009 - after Andry Rajoelina seized power with the backing of the military and forced twice elected President Marc Ravalomanana into exile in South Africa. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">About a third of Madagascar is locally referred to as “zones rouges” [red zones], nearly 200,000sqkm of territory where the government exerts little or no control and where banditry thrives, according to analysts. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Oliver Jütersonke, co-author with Moncef Kartas of a chapter in the Small Arms Survey (SAS) 2011 Yearbook on the island’s rising insecurity entitled Ethos of Exploitation, Insecurity and Predation in Madagascar, told IRIN: “Zones rouges are characterized by a sparse population and a terrain that makes patrolling or any sort of intervention quite difficult. Security interventions require good equipment and communication facilities, helicopters and 4WDs - all of which are in very short supply. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“What is more, efficient policing in the zones rouges and in many other rural areas would demand disciplined and well-trained security forces; Madagascar hardly has either,” he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The `dahalo’ <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In June 2012 clashes between the `dahalo’ (Malagasy for “bandits”) near Ilambohazo<o:p></o:p></span></div><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableMediumShading2" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; margin: -0.75pt 6pt 3.75pt; width: 200px;"><tbody>
<tr>   <td style="background: black; border-bottom: solid windowtext 2.25pt; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: solid windowtext 2.25pt; mso-background-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><img align="left" alt="''" height="18" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_2" width="23" /><strong><span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">The largest and most powerful `dahalo’   groups provide assault rifles (mainly AK-47s) and ammunition to all their   members. They escort, in broad daylight, large herds of stolen cattle,   carrying their guns openly</span></strong><b><span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><img alt="''" height="18" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_51" width="23" /></span></b><b><span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td>  </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> village in the southeastern region of Anosy, and Madagascar’s security forces sent to the area following the theft of about 900 zebu, ended in deadly skirmishes. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“It was initially thought that six security force personnel [five military personnel and one gendarme] were killed in the attacks, but 11 other bodies have recently been discovered. Another seven security force personnel were wounded and four are still missing,” according to a 21 June 2012 UN update. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After the clashes `dahalo’ threatened to attack other Anosy villages - Bevoay, Emagnobo, Enagniliha, Enakara Haut, Ampasimena, and Ranomafàna - resulting in about 1,800 people seeking refuge in the region’s capital Taolagnaro (also known as Fort Dauphin). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In response the government said it was planning a “major offensive against the `dahalo’” and a helicopter was dispatched to the city, the update said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Africa Confidential said the `dahalo’ group responsible - estimated to be 400-strong according to local media reports - was commanded by a former member of Didier Ratsiraka’s presidential guard, Arthur Rabefihavanana and known by the name of Remenablia. The specialist publication quoted a senior military official as comparing the insecurity in the Great South - the island’s arid and drought prone region - as being akin to the conditions of a guerrilla war. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">`Dahalo’ activities are not restricted to one particular area, however, and local media reported 160 `dahalo’ attacks between May and July 2010 in the northwestern Mahajanga region, with more than 3,000 cattle rustled, although there were likely to have been more incidents that went unreported. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">`Dahalo’ has been a feature of Madagascan society since pre-colonial times and was said to have evolved from ritualized cattle thefts between neighbouring rural communities marking the passage from adolescence to manhood, but in contemporary Madagascar they are synonymous with highly organized criminal gangs. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Well-armed bandits <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“The largest and most powerful `dahalo’ groups provide assault rifles (mainly AK-47s) and ammunition to all their members. They escort, in broad daylight, large herds of stolen cattle, carrying their guns openly over several hundred kilometres while crossing entire regions and provinces… They are now conducting veritable raids, taking women and children hostage and burning down houses,” said the SAS 2011 report. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The largest and most powerful `dahalo’ groups provide assault rifles (mainly AK-47s) and ammunition to all their members. They escort, in broad daylight, large herds of stolen cattle, carrying their guns openlyIn response to rising rural insecurity communities were organizing `andrimasom-pokonolona’ (self-defence units) and in some cases hiring private security companies to protect them from bandits. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Villagers and these private [security] companies have no interest in arresting these `dahalos’ and instead try to kill them if possible, as if captured they either later escape with the help of their fellow bandits or are freed by a corrupt justice system,” Jütersonke said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“The `dahalos’ in turn react by increasing their groups and armaments… Similarly, security forces themselves have a tendency to silence their captives rather than arrest them; for fear that the latter [`dahalo’] might talk about their collusion [with security forces].” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ambotragano has its own self-defence unit and “when there are people that we don’t know, the village watch will go and ask them what they are doing here,” Razafindranoivo said. However, it is a day-time operation as villagers are too scared to patrol after sunset. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Piers Pigou, International Crisis Group (ICG) Southern Africa project director, told IRIN security in Madagascar - which was far from ideal before 2009 - has worsened because of the diminishing legitimacy and capacity of the security sector, which “in turn feeds opportunistic criminal activities, and of course the situation is compounded by deteriorating socio-economic conditions.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The World Bank says the country’s 20 million people have an annual per capita income of about $400 and estimates more than 75 percent of the population live in poverty. The international donor community froze all but emergency assistance in the wake of the 2009 coup and despite negotiations by the international community and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for a return to democracy, the country’s political future remains unchartered. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">`<b>Dahalo’ links to the military</b> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">David Zoumenou, a senior conflict analyst at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), told IRIN: “The links between the military and the `dahalo’ is seen as one of the country’s highest risks,” particularly in the “stateless environments” of the zones rouges, as the resource-rich country provides a host of opportunities for both local and international criminal syndicates - from the rosewood trade through to precious metals and gems, and the smuggling of rare and sought-after wildlife. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In July 2011 the authorities confiscated six containers of rosewood logs worth up to $600,000 from a port in the northwest of the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The zones rouges are not a “new problem” and bandits with monikers such as Ratsibahaka (The Bad Lemur) and Zaza Mola (Crazy Baby) have become part of the island’s folklore for their criminal exploits “but since 2002 they [zones rouges] have become very prominent,” Zoumenou said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Rice in Madagascar Political instability became the handmaiden of small arms proliferation on the island and after Ratsiraka refused to accept electoral defeat to Ravalomanana, the country was pushed to the verge of civil war in 2002 before international intervention averted conflict. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">During the stand-off - which saw the capital blockaded for six months - the army split their allegiances and the two presidential contenders enlisted civilians and reservists to form militias to bolster their respective forces, ranging Ravalomanana’s “légitimistes” against Ratsiraka’s “loyalistes”. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Lots of people were armed from state arsenals and the weapons were never returned. Indeed, there are rumours that many of these armed folks are today’s `dahalo’,” Kartas said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In the absence of any small arms recovery initiative, firearms are easily sourced through illicit channels, including AK-47 assault rifles, according to analysts, and the lower ranks of the poorly paid security forces are said to rent out their weapons, while the town of Ambatolampy, about 70km south of Antananarivo, is reputedly the island’s main centre for the production of hand-made firearms. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Security sector reform <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Increasing rural lawlessness is set against a lack of any effective security sector reform. Madagascar inherited and has maintained, by and large, a three-tier security system: a 12,500 strong army - although the top heavy officer-class structure is sufficient for an army of more than 400,000; a gendarmerie of 8,100 personnel supposed to provide security in rural areas; and a police force of about 20,000, or one officer for every 1,000 citizens. Within the security hierarchy the country’s police chief plays a subordinate role. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“The gendarmerie is characterized by an inflated proportion of high-ranking officers, a meddling in domestic politics, and entrepreneurial enrichment - as is the army… [The gendarmerie] are ultimately an ineffective service on the island’s vast territory,” the SAS report said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Malagasy air force - a few hundred personnel - flies an aging fleet of various aircraft, while the 500-strong navy has about six patrol craft, which analysts see as insufficient to patrol the 4,828km coastline of the world’s fourth largest island - one with countless remote natural ports providing anchorage for ocean going vessels - and so providing few barriers for the illegal export of its land and marine resources. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">SAS author Kartas says that since the 2009 putsch living conditions in rural areas have not improved and “what is more, with the new regime, the influence of the military in politics has substantially increased. And security has focused on regime security, not on human security.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Army officers given free hand in rural areas? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Rajoelina has cited the well-equipped military unit, the Forces d’Intervention <o:p></o:p></span></div><table align="left" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableMediumShading2" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; margin: -0.75pt 6pt 3.75pt; width: 204px;"><tbody>
<tr>   <td style="background: black; border-bottom: solid windowtext 2.25pt; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: solid windowtext 2.25pt; mso-background-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><img align="left" alt="''" height="18" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_3" width="23" /><strong><span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">If they (`dahalo’) become a   disciplined force with good equipment, the state’s army and security forces   will face a formidable challenge</span></strong><b><span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><img alt="''" height="18" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_57" width="23" /></span></b><b><span style="color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td>  </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Spéciales (FIS), as a force suitable to counter the `dahalo’, but in practice it has merely suppressed elements suspected of planning a counter coup against Rajolena’s government in 2010. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kartas said the unit’s “authority and place within the security apparatus remains unclear”. Some FIS officers were drawn from the Corps d’armée du personnel et des services administrative et technique (CAPSAT) barracks in Antananrivo, which gave considerable support to Rajoelina when he ousted Ravalomanana. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If they (`dahalo’) become a disciplined force with good equipment, the state’s army and security forces will face a formidable challengeZoumenou of the ISS said Rajoelina had made “concessions” to the army’s officer class to essentially “do what they want” in rural areas, in exchange for their support for him to remain in power and “now everything is possible”. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ICG’s Pigou says: “The military remain kingmakers - although the nature of their relationship with some politicians is symbiotic. Any settlement must somehow co-opt them, or find a way of ensuring they do not interfere. While they may not be able to provide a political solution or alternative by themselves, without their blessing one imagines that any political `solution’ would be on a shaky foundation.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Jütersonke said cattle rustling was a profitable venture, but the question was: Have the `dahalo’ already ventured into other criminal enterprises and “will they even start to embrace or express political goals? If they (`dahalo’) become a disciplined force with good equipment, the state’s army and security forces will face a formidable challenge.” <o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Analysis: Madagascar's Unforgiving Bandit Lands

Photo © IRIN AMBOTRAGANO (IRIN) - It took two years for Zakamihaingo Razafindranoivo, 37, to raise US$900 to replace his two stolen zeb...