Niger's farmers must prepare for more flooding

IRIN: ... [In Niger, an] inter-ministerial committee set up to assess and help manage flood damage estimates 700 fields in the Tillabéri region where Niamey is located, were flooded this year. Ayouba Hassane, director-general of the Federation of Rice Producer Cooperatives, said 14,000 tons of paddy rice have been destroyed since July.

Rice farmers usually produce 80,000 tons of the country’s annual 130,000 ton production during the rainy season, while a further 200,000-300,000 tons of rice is imported each year.  The Niger Basin Authority (ABN) predicts further flooding from mid-November based on the annual rising of the River Niger which occurs both during the rainy season and as river water from neighbouring countries such as Guinea and Mali eventually reaches Niger in mid-November to January.

According to ABN, the swell will be bigger this year than in recent years.  Residents along the river say it is already rising again, despite there having been no rain in a month. “This is a normal phenomenon, but excessive rise can cause new floods,” said Valerie Batselaere, head of NGO Oxfam in Niger.

Flooding between July and October killed 81 people and affected 520,000 - hundreds of thousands of them displaced - according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The government called it the worst flooding in decades.

...Drainage ditches and flood barriers are urgently needed to protect farmers along the river, said a September 2012 study by NGOs ACTED and Oxfam, and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).  The same study revealed that among Nigeriens displaced by floods, by far the most vulnerable were the 18 percent who were farmers or market gardeners relying solely on agriculture to get by....

Tuareg goatherders in Niger, shot by Stefano Manca http://www.flickr.com/people/7978937@N06/, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license