World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Crop failures in Niger brought on by another drought in the African Sahel region has caused food prices to soar at a time they would ordinarily be coming down.

Niger is currently in the post-harvest period when food prices ought to be bottoming out. But as a result of the drought, the price of the local staple millet shot up from US $29.00 per 100kg in October to over $41.00 a month later. 

Farmers in Niger say that, because of the drought, a harvest which ought to have lasted them through the Spring will only provide enough food for two or three months.

As men across the country begin to migrate to neighboring countries like Nigeria in search of work, they leave behind whole villages of women, children and the elderly.

Many families in Niger have still not recovered from the food crisis of 2010. To cope with another failed harvest, many will have no choice but to sell what few goods they have left, take their children out of school and move somewhere else.

In addition to caring for children and preparing food, women in Niger are also responsible for a large share of the heavy farm labor--a burden which only increases when their husbands go abroad to find work.

Empowering women farmers to grow more and better food is key to finding a long-term solution to hunger caused by droughts and failed harvests.

Over the next year, WFP plans on providing food to some 2.2 million people across Niger, particularly women and children.