Oveni alle de andre fortrædeligheder – tørke, sult og politisk uro – kommer nu meldinger om, at de lokale beboere i landene i Saharas sydlige udkant oplever noget, der ligner en fordobling af priserne på lokale grundnæringsmidler såsom hirse.
OUAGADOUGOU, 25 May 2012 (IRIN): Unexpectedly sharp price rises in April for local cereals like millet (hirse), rice and maize in parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad mean many vulnerable people in the drought-hit Sahel could find it even harder to get enough to eat.
The high prices of basic foods are the most alarming feature of the current Sahel crisis, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Prices are expected to keep rising until the end of August – during the lean (magre) season – but the size of recent hikes has surprised food price analysts and humanitarian aid personnel.
In Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, local millet is 85 percent above the five-year average, and in Mali’s capital, Bamako, it is more than double, said Jean-Martin Bauer, the Food Security Monitoring Systems leader at the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
In Ouagadougou a 100 kg bag of millet cost 26.000 cfa (49 US dollar) in May 2012, compared to 15.000 cfa (28 dollar) in May 2011, while in Bamako a 100 kg bag of millet cost 28.500 cfa (53 dollar) this year but only 14.000 cfa (26 dollar) a year ago, according to UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) monthly reports.
This volatility – when prices move outside of historical minimum or maximum increases, as they did in April – is as important to watch as steadily rising levels, said Gary Eilerts, Programme Manager at FEWS NET.
Aid agencies say the very poor, who own no land or animals of their own and must buy most of their food, are worst affected.
Why are local grains so expensive?
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95532/SAHEL-Sharp-price-hikes-cause-alarm
