Food security in Uganda's Karamoja region precarious, says UN agency

AllAfrica.com, via IRIN: Food insecurity in Uganda's drought-prone region of Karamoja will worsen in 2009, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. The agency said the focus of the humanitarian community would be mainly on Karamoja because of its tenuous food situation, exacerbated by the widespread failure of the latest harvest, with yields about 30 percent of the expected output.

WFP said prospects for improved food security and nutrition were poor as the region was facing its third successive failed harvest. Karamoja has one main harvest season annually in August-September. "We are currently catering for about 700,000 people, but this number is expected to go as high as 950,000," Stanlake Samkange, WFP country representative, told IRIN on 22 December.

"They will need food aid because many places in Karamoja did not harvest anything because of the worsening climatic conditions. Harvests have been around 30 percent while other areas have recorded even lower rates than that. WFP will soon launch an emergency operation to assist an estimated 900,000 people for approximately a year."

Karamoja, often referred to as Uganda's "wild west", remains the poorest and most marginalised part of the country. It is caught in a cycle of natural disasters, conflict and limited investment, which perpetuates underdevelopment and hunger….