Human Rescue Plan

Fight World Hunger

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Brief excerpt

Brief excerpt from our fearless 2IC. I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions.


  • It has been suggested that Niger will now need a minimum of 120,000 tons of cereals (half rice, half millet/sorghum) to get the vulnerable and urban populations through rainy season, until harvest in late September. This will cost an estimated $146 million.
  • If the rainy season and subsequent harvest is bad (i.e. anything less than above average), Niger will need even more.
  • It has also been suggested that the Government of Niger has way over-stated its reserves, which if true would further exacerbate the situation and level of need.
  • The Government of Nigeria is ordering 500,000 tons of rice alone to feed its people. This will certainly impact what Niger is able to import from its southern neighbor. It will also impact Niger's search on the global market which is already pretty much tapped out.
  • Cost of rice is now hovering around $1,000/ton which is nearly three times the price from December 2007. Of course, this mainly effects urban wage earners as opposed to subsistence rural farmers.
  • Urban residents in Niger consume between 15,000-20,000 metric tons (MT) of rice per month. With the elevated costs, average urban wage earners must now spend more than 50% of monthly salaries just to buy rice for their families!
  • The current estimated rice stock in the hands of private traders in urban areas throughout Niger is less than 7,000 MT, or the equivalent of 10 days of national consumption (this quantity does not include rice already in retails stores and market stalls, nor does it include stocks that traders are reluctant to report, assuming they are waiting for the prices to reach maximum)
  • During previous food crises, Niger would resort to importing cheap Asian rice to offset the food gap. This is not an option this year. It becomes particularly more strained by the recent natural disasters in Burma and China.
  • All told, all signs point to a rice shortage/stoppage in Niger by the end of June.



Just so you know what the local effects are expected to be

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

IST

Hail hail the gang's all here.

It's IST time and I'm in Hamdy with weekends in Niamey for the next two weeks. It's great to see everyone again and we lucked out with the ride in - a cool day and a packed but not overcrowded bus. I managed to sleep for most of it, given that the amoeba medication comes with anti-nausea medication so you can keep it down, AND the fact that Krista and I stayed up all night so we would sleep. It was a good trip.

Really looking forward to seeing everyone now that we're all in - we've still got almost a full contingent - only 2 people have left so far of our original gang of 34. Pretty good numbers.

Village life is good. My people are really nice, and seem to have a lot of kokari (effort). I'm going to be working with an improved bean project once I get back, as well as trying some seeds I brought from home. Squash, melons, and corn, plus I'm getting garden beds built in my concession so I can plant tomatoes and peppers and things that require a bit more tending. I'm also trying to figure out a way to bring a water tower to my village in a sustainable manner so that we can start gardening and making pepinieres and reclaiming the accursed desert.

In the future, I'm lookign at trying to move into Niamey to replace a volunteer planning to leave in March-ish. She works at INRAN, the national agricultural research organization here in Niger. She's the one that's organizing the bean project with the PCVs and I think that, once I've gotten my language skills very down and all that I'd be a good fit there. Plus, you know, I might actually get to use my degree! Imagine that!

But that's pretty much life here - other than amoebas and bacteria I'm in health, and on meds so not feeling bad. Really excited to be here, even on the really tough days when I want to drown the majority of the women in the well... It's remaining a good experience for me.

Love and HUGS
M

P.S. I want to send a loud congratulations out to Kate and Gilbert - may Allah bless your union with happiness and many children (they like to wish 10 kids around here but I'll let you two get away with 5 :) )