Nearly 25 million food insecure in Sahel

IRIN: Food security and malnutrition rates across the Sahel are deteriorating, due in large part to ongoing conflict and instability in the Central African Republic (CAR), northern Mali, and northeast Nigeria, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Nearly five million more people have joined the ranks of the food insecure since the beginning of the year, bringing the estimated total to 24.7 million - more than double the number in 2013, says OCHA.  "The dramatic rise in insecurity across the region over the last year has generated a tremendous number of people that need to be fed and housed and given health care, because they've been ripped from their livelihoods, as well as their homes," said Robert Piper, the UN regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel. "It has also, of course, had an impact on the market and some food prices."

Some 6.5 million people have crossed the emergency threshold from being moderately food insecure to facing an acute food and livelihood crisis. This is four million more people in this category than in January.

"There's a big difference between Phase 2 [moderately food insecure], where you are food insecure but using coping mechanisms to deal with it, and Phase 3 [acute food and livelihood crisis], where you have started to use negative coping mechanisms that have potentially very long-term negative consequences," Piper said.

Negative coping mechanisms include taking out a loan that must be repaid from profits from the following year's harvest, eating seeds that should be saved for next year's planting season, and reducing the number of daily meals from three down to two, or even one....

The road to Timbuktu in Mali, shot by Annabel Symington, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons 2.0 license 

Famine in the Horn of Africa (1984) was caused by El Niño and currents in the Indian Ocean

AlphaGalileo via the University of Ghent: Oceanic patterns are important drivers of climatic variability. There is a clear link between periods of drought in the North Ethiopian Highlands and oceanic phases of El Niño, the Indian Ocean Dipole and the Southwestern Monsoons.

In order to prove these links, PhD student Sil Lanckriet (Department of Geography, Ghent University) analyzed weather data since the 1950s, as delivered from a meteorological computer model. He used a procedure known as ‘empirical orthogonal teleconnection analysis’ (EOT). According to Piet Termonia of the Royal Meteorological Institute, such statistical techniques are a clear step forward, since they allow linking oceanic patterns across the planet with the climatic situation at a particular location on the earth surface.

For his PhD, Sil Lanckriet is studying climatic fluctuations in Ethiopia over the past centur
ies, as well as their impact on periods of drought and processes of soil erosion. His study area is located in Korem, the place written in our collective memory by several BBC documentaries, Live Aid and by the pictures of Sebastião Salgado. His promoters Jan Nyssen and Amaury Frankl are well acquainted with the area. They even relocated the exact locations of the pictures and documentaries that were world news at the time. “Our research experience in Ethiopia shows that it is certainly possible that a similar drought will occur again, but this time it will probably not lead to a famine as in 1984. The Ethiopians have been very active on matters such as reforestation and soil and water conservation. We could prove that the land is now much less vulnerable for the occurrence of droughts”.

Enyew Adgo (Bahir Dar University) points out that East African meteorological agencies are well aware of the interactions between the Ethiopian weather and fluctuations of El Niño in the Pacific Ocean. The researchers show that similar patterns in the Indian Ocean should be incorporated by the meteorological models, in order to improve the prediction power of systems for Famine Early Warning...

Approaching Zanzibar, shot by Rob, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons 2.0 license

Drought set to worsen Somalia food crisis

AllAfrica.com via Dalsan Radio (Mogadishu): "The latest assessments from the Food and Agricultural Organization warn that the food crisis in Somalia will deteriorate in the coming months, with drought conditions already observed in parts of the country due to a poor rainy season. Rainfall was recorded at less than 50 per cent of normal levels during the March to June Gu rains.

Today we face a stark reality. The elements that could tip Somalia into an acute crisis now stand before us - drought, continued conflict, restricted flow of commercial goods, increasing malnutrition and surging food prices.

Two months ago I warned that Somalia's fragile food security situation was likely to worsen in the coming months. This is now reality. In the coming months, for the first time since the 2011 famine, we will see the number of people in food security crisis and emergency go up again. We cannot let these food security warnings fall on deaf ears. I call on the donor community to make resources available immediately so that relief organizations can take action without delay. We can save lives today if we act now.

Despite the dire humanitarian situation that is unfolding, the Consolidated Appeal for Somalia is woefully underfunded at 25 per cent. A gap of about US$700 million is still required to provide humanitarian assistance until the end of 2014, to 2.9 million people who are struggling to feed themselves....

Voice of America photo by P. Heinlein of Somali refugee camp in Ethiopia

Somalia at “risk of relapse”

IRIN: Three years after a famine claimed 260,000 lives in Somalia, 2.9 million people there are still affected by a multifaceted but desperately underfunded humanitarian crisis, and communities are just “one shock away from disaster”, a host of aid agencies have warned in a joint campaign entitled “Risk of relapse.”

“With a third of the population in need of aid, Somalia is clearly in severe crisis,” according to a statement signed by 22 NGOs*. Just 12 percent of Somalia’s humanitarian funding requirements for the year have been met, and there is a shortfall of US$822 million.  The organizations also launched a social media campaign, saying “we can’t fail them again.”

World Vision noted that rains have failed across most of Somalia, and the recent upsurge in the military offensive by AMISOM has led to greater displacement in the south.

“What we have is an early warning that has ingredients of a perfect storm. We urge donors and stakeholders to take immediate action to avert disaster,” said Andrew Lanyon, Chief of Party for the Somalia Resilience Programme (SomReP), an organization that World Vision is a member of, during a media briefing in Nairobi....

Refugees eagerly await the installation of a new water tank. Fleeing famine in south central Somalia, they have arrived in a part of northeast Kenya that has suffered the driest year in six decades. Clean water is in short supply. Photo: Jo Harrison/Oxfam, Oxfam East Africa, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license 

War, late rains spark Somalia 'crisis' warning

Africa Daily via AFP: War and delayed rains in Somalia are putting thousands of lives at risk, especially in areas where African Union troops are battling Islamist extremists for control, the United Nations said Friday. Seasonal rains crucial for farming and usually lasting from April to June are yet to start in key southern areas of Somalia, as well as in far northeast
ern regions.

If rains fail this month, "combined with sustained insecurity, we might see new levels of crisis unfold," said Daniel Molla, chief technical advisor from the UN's Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU).

"Delayed rains, rising food prices and persistent insecurity in Somalia is likely to worsen the country's food security situation in the coming months," FSNAU added in a statement, with more than 850,000 people requiring "urgent humanitarian assistance".

The southern regions of Middle and Lower Shabelle are the worst affected, frontline battle zones where African Union troops fighting alongside Somali government forces are battling Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents.

Over 200,000 children aged under five are "acutely malnourished", with more than a quarter of those assessed as severe cases who "face a higher risk of death", FSNAU added. Somalia was the hardest hit by extreme drought in 2011 that affected over 13 million people across the Horn of Africa, with famine zones declared in large parts of the war-ravaged south....

Somali refugees in 20011, shot by Oxfam Horn of Africa famine refugee.jpg: Oxfam East Africa, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Drought threatens population in the northwest of Haiti

Amelie Baron at the Thomson Reuters Foundation: Only cactus grows along the dirt road fringing arid fields on the way to the isolated village of Bas des Moustiques, on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Port-de-Paix in Haiti. A lack of rain in recent months has killed crops in Haiti's poorest region, and left people struggling to survive.

...The drought follows two years of poor harvests in the region. ... Historically, food has been sparse in northwestern Haiti, where chronic malnutrition is common among the young, stunting their physical and intellectual growth.

Now the drought is directly affecting an additional 143,000 people, say international relief experts, prompting a major emergency operation by the U.N.'s World Food Program.

"They are now in a terrible situation," said Georg-Friedrich Heymell, the Program's director in Haiti. "They cannot survive without support. The food we give them will help them for the next six weeks."...

Misery mounts in drought-hit southeast Pakistan

Terra Daily via AFP: Two-month-old Mangal succumbed to pneumonia on Tuesday in Mithi, southeast Pakistan, the latest victim of a deadly web of drought, disease and malnutrition in one of the country's most deprived regions.... She died in a government hospital in Mithi, the main town of Tharparkar district, becoming one of at least 67 children to die of poverty-driven disease in the area since December.

....The unfolding tragedy has grabbed the attention of the national media but aid remains scarce, a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, son of the late premier Benazir Bhutto, visited the area.

Thar desert, which begins around 300 kilometres (200 miles) east of Karachi and runs up to the border with India, is dominated by subsistence farmers who depend on beans, wheat, and sesame seeds for survival, bartering surplus in exchange for livestock.

It has been hit by a rainfall deficit of roughly 30 percent between March 2013 and February this year, according to government data, with the worst-hit towns of Diplo, Chacro and Islamkot barely touched by a drop of water for months. At an army-run camp in Mithi, women dressed in the yellow, red and blue dress typical of the region's Hindu community, waited in a line for relief which many said was hard to come by.

...Hindus, a small minority in Pakistan's overwhelmingly Muslim population of 180 million, have been the worst affected by what is happening in Tharparkar. "Of all the children we treated 75 percent were from the Hindu community," said Khatri, the doctor in Mithi....

Herd of Camels in Tharparkar Desert in District Umer Kot, Sindh, Pakistan. Shot by M. Jamil Khan, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Worsening food crisis in South Sudan’s swamplands

IRIN:  In the vast swamplands of South Sudan’s Sudd region, tens of thousands of recently displaced people (IDPs) are living with little food and no sanitation facilities on inaccessible islands, according to local officials. They fled after attackers, allegedly from Rumbek (Lakes State in central South Sudan), swarmed across the county burning houses and raiding cattle on 7 February.

Flying over the county headquarters of Panyjiar in southern Unity State, at least half of the houses appear to have been burned to the ground. The IDPs on the islands need food, but for now there is no way to reach them. “If you don’t have a canoe, you can’t go there,” said Simon Kuol, coordinator of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission of Panyjiar County.

On 27 February, the UN’s top humanitarian official, Valerie Amos, expressed deep concern over “the grave humanitarian situation in South Sudan, where, despite the recent ceasefire agreement, the lives of millions of civilians are threatened by lack of food, outbreaks of disease, and continued violence.”

.... The events unfolding in Nyal and its surrounding swamplands are just one example of how communities all over South Sudan are in urgent need of food assistance, but out of reach, either due to insecurity or lack of infrastructure. A scramble is under way to prepare food distributions to assist them, aid workers say. Some 3.2 million people are currently in an “emergency” or “crisis” phase of food insecurity under the IPC classification system. In less than two months, much of South Sudan will become inaccessible due to rain....

Fishing in the Sudd wetland, shot by Karen Conniff, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Food system that fails poor countries needs urgent reform, says UN expert

Mark Tran in the global development blog at the Guardian (UK): The existing food system has failed and needs urgent reform, according to a UN expert who argues there should be a greater emphasis on local food production and an overhaul of trade policies that have led to overproduction in rich countries while obliging poor countries – which are often dependent on agriculture – to import food.

In his final report , Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, offers a detailed critique of an industrial system of agriculture that has boosted food production over the past 50 years, yet still leaves 842 million – 12% of the world's population – hungry.

"Measured against the requirement that they should contribute to the realisation of the right to food, the food systems we have inherited from the 20th century have failed," he told the UN human rights council. "Of course, significant progress has been achieved in boosting agricultural production. But this has hardly reduced the number of hungry people."

The right to food is defined as the right of every individual to have physical and economic access at all times to sufficient, adequate and culturally acceptable food that is produced and consumed sustainably, preserving access to food for future generations...

In India, a "metate" is used to process grain, shot by Fotokannan, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license 

FAO warns of the risk of a double tragedy in the Philippines

A press release from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization: Immediate assistance from the international community for Philippine farmers is critical to avoid a double tragedy befalling rural survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, FAO announced today.

FAO is calling on the donor community to urgently step forward and provide more than $11 million to get money to rural people to help clean and clear agricultural land and de-silt irrigation canals in the aftermath of the devastation caused by the typhoon.

The Philippine Department of Agriculture has requested that FAO support this cash-for-work scheme, covering more than 150 000 hectares and some 80 kilometres of communal irrigation canals. Placed in perspective, it takes 10 person-days to clear just one hectare of farmland. Funding is also needed for some 1 400 communal irrigation pumps.  The call for assistance is in addition to the $20 million already requested by FAO to help typhoon-affected farmers plant, fertilize, irrigate and maintain their crops to ensure the next harvests in 2014.

“We are in a race against time,” said Rodrigue Vinet, Senior Officer in charge of FAO’s programme in the Philippines. “There is an immediate need for resources to help farmers clear their land and plant their crops. Therefore, we need to make the required purchases now and provide substantial resources directly to farmers to help them through this period.”

FAO is calling on the international donor community to recognize the urgency of the situation and contribute to the government’s efforts in meeting this critical recovery initiative without delay....

An aerial view of Tacloban on November 24, 2013, shot by DFID - UK Department for International Development, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Somalia's 6,000 cyclone victims in receive food aid

AllAfrica.com via Sabahi: At least 6,000 people affected by the tropical cyclone in Somalia's Puntland region have received one-month food rations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Sunday (November 17th).

"A lot of people in these areas are in dire need," said Patrick Vial, the head of the ICRC delegation to Somalia. "Reports reaching our staff in the field speak of dozens of dead and the loss of significant numbers of livestock."

The cyclone has left as many as 300 people dead. The rains have also flooded parts of Middle Shabelle, especially Jowhar, and Somaliland.

The ICRC estimates that 10,000 people have been forced from their homes due to the harsh weather conditions, which have contaminated many drinking water wells and destroyed the possibility of a harvest for many farmers. Aid for about 26,000 people has been sent to the area and will be distributed in coming days. "The long-term effect of this cyclone is also likely to be severe," Vial said...

Hunger looms over Malawi

Thomson Reuters Foundation via Plan UK: Nearly 1.5 million villagers are short of food in rural Malawi after severe weather disrupted harvests, reports Plan International. Late and erratic rains, droughts and floods have all contributed, with the north of the East African country worst affected.

Many families are now down to one or two basic meals a day, instead of three, in a bid to ration what they have. “Most households have given up breakfast as one way of saving the little food they have stocked,” says Plan’s country director in Malawi, Lilly Omondi.

“As such, their dietary intake has decreased below normal and this may result in increased cases of malnutrition in children under the age of five.” Families could be short of food for up to five months while in one of the worst hit areas, villagers walked 12 miles to get food aid.

The government will provide 25,000 tonnes of maize for distribution after 30,000 tonnes of grain rotted in reserves earlier this year. Aid workers for Plan have begun distributing maize, pulses and corn-soya blend to families in Mzimba and Kasungu.

High maize prices and families’ lack of assets after repeated shortages are worsening the situation....

A UN food program feeding children in Malawi, shot by khym54, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Malawians brace for another year of hunger

IRIN: The phrase on the lips of many Malawians these days, particularly in the north of the country is: “There will be hunger this year.”

In Karonga District, prolonged hot, dry spells caused maize crops in the southern part of the district to wilt. The dry spell was followed by heavy rains, which not only knocked down the wilting maize but also brought down several houses, affecting scores of people. In the northern part of the district, flooding filled rice paddies with sand, virtually burying the crop.

Rumphi and Mzimba districts - the hub of maize production in Malawi’s northern region - were also hit by dry spells starting from February.

As a result of the weather conditions, most farmers in the region harvested little maize. In fact, an annual food security forecast by the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) - composed of the government, UN agencies and NGOs - predicted that 21 of the country’s 28 districts will face varying degrees of food insecurity until the next harvest in March 2014, with the northern region most severely affected.

Across the region, residents have started buying and storing bags of maize to prepare for the steep price increases that normally accompany the peak of the lean season....

Namibia drought: one in three at risk of malnutrition

David Smith in “globaldevelopment” blog at the Guardian (UK): One in three people in Namibia is at risk of malnutrition, the UN has warned, as the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa endures its worst drought for a generation.

The government declared a state of emergency after the failure of crops in May and pledged $20m (£13m) of relief for the worst-hit households. The Kunene region in the north has had no rain for two years, and families have been forced to sell livestock and migrate to cities in search of work.

After a summer lacking rains and a typically dry southern hemisphere winter, Unicef, the UN's children agency, has appealed for millions more to tackle the situation.

"An estimated 778,000 Namibians, a third of the population, are either severely or moderately food insecure," said Unicef, noting that this includes 109,000 under fives. "Against a backdrop of underlying fragility, including pre-existing high levels of food insecurity and maternal and child undernutrition (29% national stunting) combined with low sanitation coverage (14% in rural areas), children and women are particularly at risk of worsening health and nutrition status given the current drought conditions," the agency added.

Unicef has appealed for $7.4m (£4.8m) to support efforts to respond to the needs of women and children affected by the drought. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is asking for $1.48m (£1m)…

Ancient dunes from the Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia. Shot by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license

Pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine even more virulent now

Seed Daily via SPX: The plant pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s lives on today with a different genetic blueprint and an even larger arsenal of weaponry to harm and kill plants.

In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, North Carolina State University plant pathologist Jean Ristaino and colleagues Mike Martin and Tom Gilbert from the University of Copenhagen compared the genomes, or sets of all genes, of five 19th century strains of the Phytophthora infestans pathogen with modern strains of the pathogen, which still wreaks havoc on potatoes and tomatoes.

The researchers found that the genes in historical plant samples collected in Belgium in 1845 as well as other samples collected from varied European locales in the late 1870s and 1880s were quite different from modern-day P. infestans genes, including some genes in modern plants that make the pathogen more virulent than the historical strains.

...Some of the differences between the European historical samples from the 1840s and the 1870s and 1880s suggest that the pathogen was brought to Europe more than once, debunking the theory that the pathogen was introduced once and then expanded its range. Ristaino believes it was introduced to Europe multiple times, probably from South American ships.

P. infestans caused massive and debilitating late-blight disease outbreaks in Europe, leaving starvation and migration in its wake after ravaging Ireland in the mid-to-late 1840s. Ristaino's previous work pointed the finger at the 1a strain of P. infestans as the Irish potato-famine pathogen and traced its probable origin to South America...

The Great Famine National Monument. Detail from the bronze sculpture by John Behan depicting a "coffin ship" carrying emigrants following the 1840s famines. Shot by Bruce Hall, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Urgent food aid needed to save lives in drought-stricken Namibia

Alexander Matheou in a press release from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies:  The headline in Namibia’s national newspaper is dramatic: 38 die of starvation in the first five months of 2013, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg as the drought enters its most bitter period.

Such news would normally stir outcry and action, but here the response has been lukewarm. There are two reasons for this. First, Namibia is a stable, middle income country that lacks the aid sector which would raise red flags in other parts of the continent. Second, while the figure of 38 malnutrition related deaths is horrific, it actually represents a decrease relative to figures from 2010 and 2011. In parts of Namibia, chronic hunger is not uncommon in poor households, even in a normal year.

...But to categorize this drought as a chronic crisis requiring only long-term, poverty reduction interventions would be a mistake that costs lives. The government declared an emergency in May this year for a reason. The drought has – albeit slowly – shattered livelihoods and left people without an ability to meet their basic survival needs.

This becomes evident deep in the pastoralist drylands of north west Namibia, where tribes preserve a way of life that is a global heritage. 

...Food aid is no solution in the long-term. But right now, for the most drought affected communities in the arid of lands of Namibia, that is just what is needed to preserve life and health until the next rains and harvest....

The Kalahari Desert in Namibia, shot by Elmar Thiel, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license

Political risk deters action to avert famine

Megan Rowling in AlertNet: Governments are failing to prevent hunger emergencies in developing nations, despite ample warning, because they see more political danger than reward in acting early to avert famine, a report from the Chatham House thinktank said on Friday.

To prevent further food crises like those that hit millions of people in the Horn and Sahel regions of Africa in the past two years, the misalignment between political and humanitarian risks must be addressed, or aid needs will increasingly go unmet because drought-related hunger is affecting growing numbers of people in Africa, the report said.

"Rapid population growth, low levels of political inclusion, low agricultural yields and rapid environmental change mean the risk of food crises in the Horn and Sahel is increasing," said the report from the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs. "Conflict and geopolitics act as risk multipliers, meaning that full-blown famine remains a serious threat."

Drought-related food crises are the most deadly of all natural hazards and are estimated to have cost between 1 and 2 million lives since 1970. The report explains why the international aid community is still dragging its feet on early warnings, even though these have improved considerably. For example, alerts were issued for 11 months before famine was finally declared in Somalia in July 2011, and the relief system was mobilised, it said.

One of the main reasons was political, as Western donor nations feared their aid could end up supporting the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, considered a terrorist organisation by Washington, according to the report. "From a donor perspective, the risk of humanitarian aid being captured by al Shabaab took priority over the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia," it said...

Famine Stele on Sehel Island, Egypt as found by W.M. Flinders Petrie, shot by Markh, public domain

Madagascar's hungry eat grasshoppers after deadly cyclone

Terra Daily AFP: With small, silent steps, 10-year-old Borikely carefully picks her way through the tall grass of a Madagascar field in search of her dinner. She's hunting for grasshoppers, which she'll catch with a stick. Once speared, she places them carefully in a small round straw basket and within a few minutes, she has collected dozens of insects.

This is Borikely's only meal of the day, revealing the extent of the food crisis that has gripped the Indian Ocean island since cyclone Haruna hit three weeks ago. "I don't like grasshoppers, but I am forced to eat them since the cyclone because I am hungry," Borikely told AFP.

The storm killed 26 people and affected nearly 40,000 more, devastating several villages and forcing thousands of people to cram into emergency camps. Now, villagers like Borikely fill their stomachs by eating grasshoppers which are cooked with a little salt and water, or grilled in some parts of the country.

The fields in Borikely's isolated village of Ankilimalangy, five hours drive inland from the coastal city of Toliara, were completely flooded by the February 22 storm. The village is typical of Madagascar's arid southwest where crops are only harvested once a year.

When tropical storms or cyclones hit -- which they do almost every year -- an entire village crop can easily be wiped out. An hour from Toliara lies Mangily, a holiday destination where sun-bathing tourists seem blissfully unaware of the recent devastation and the lack of drinking water.

…French charity group Action Against Hunger, which invited AFP to see the extent of the needs of the hurricane's victims, has begun disinfecting contaminated wells with chlorine and has installed a pump system to try to remove the dirty water….

Millions of Indians facing worst drought in decades

Space Daily via AFP: Millions of people in western India are suffering their worst drought in more than four decades, with critics blaming official ineptitude and corruption for exacerbating the natural water shortage. Central areas of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, are facing a water shortage worse than the severe drought in 1972, the state's chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told AFP.

"In recorded history the reservoirs have never been so low in central Maharashtra," he said. "With every passing day the reservoirs are drying up." Chavan blamed the crisis on two successive poor monsoons, although others say a public policy failure is also responsible.

Nearly 2,000 tanker trucks are being used to transport drinking water to the needy, while hundreds of cattle camps have been set up to keep livestock alive until the monsoon, which usually arrives in June. "With every passing day, the tankers have to travel a greater distance. It's a huge logistical issue," Chavan said.

The chief minister's office could not put an exact figure on the population in the 10,000 villages affected, but said it ran into millions....

2012 drought in Karnataka, India, shot by Pushkarv, Wikimedia Commons,  under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

The year the grains failed: Why poorer countries are scheduling 'food-free days'

Michael McCarthy in the Independent: World grain prices have risen so high that families in poorer countries are being forced to schedule "food-free days" each week, according to one of the leading experts on global agriculture.

The extreme rationing is an "an unprecedented manifestation of food stress," according to Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, and the most respected environmental observer of food and agricultural trends. While regional food shortages are far from uncommon, the sheer number of people in the developing world who can no longer afford to eat every day has appalled humanitarian workers.

"We have not seen this before, where a family systematically schedules days where they do not eat, when they know they can't buy enough every day so they decide at the beginning of the week, this week we won't eat on Wednesday or we won't eat on Saturday," Mr Brown said yesterday.

Quoting figures from a report commissioned by Save the Children, he said that foodless days were now a part of life for up to 24 per cent of families in India, 27 per cent in Nigeria, and 14 per cent in Peru. The development was part of a long-term shift, he said, from a world food economy dominated by surpluses, to one dominated by scarcity....

Arcimboldo's "The Green Grocer"