A delegation from PepsiCo Quaker in the Netherlands recently travelled to Benin to visit WFP’s school feeding programme, which the company is supporting. The visit demonstrated the impact that PepsiCo Quaker’s contributions have had on primary schools in Benin.

FOOD SECURITY SNAPSHOT

• Estimates for the 2012 harvest point to another above average cereal production

• Cereal markets remain well supplied, following last year’s good crop

The 2013 rainy season has started in the South

The raining season has started in the southern part of the country, where planting of the first maize crop is underway. Planting will progress northwards with the onset of rains.

Summary: On 6 January, a fire broke out in the village of Alloya, resulting in in the destruction of hundreds of houses and displacing almost 3,000 people, leaving the affected families in a very vulnerable situation without any shelter.

West African policy makers should prepare for future challenges from climate change as they address the pressing needs of broad-based economic growth. Maize, millet, rice, and sorghum are the major cereal crops in the region, yet yields from these crops are very low compared to the world average and even other regions in Africa. Impacts from a changing climate will challenge production systems already under pressure to produce more to feed a growing population.

West Africa can be divided into three agro-ecological zones or three different trade basins (West Basin, Central Basin and East Basin). Both important for understanding market behavior and dynamics.

GLIDE n° EP-2012-000186-BEN

Period covered by this update: 10 November 2012 to 31 January 2013.

Summary: CHF 112,195 was allocated from the IFRC`s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) on 9 November 2012, to support the National Society in delivering immediate assistance to some 25,000 people in 5,000 households.

Link: Benin: Fire - DREF operation n° MDRBJ011

More than 10 million people have been affected by the recent flooding in West Africa. Rainfall has eased across much of the region and clean-up and reconstruction efforts are underway. Nigeria remains the most affected country with 2.3 million people still displaced. There is also renewed flooding in Niger following upstream rains in Guinea. Relief efforts have now shifted to medium and long-term prevention measures.

Response missions to Cameroon, Benin, Niger and Chad were recently completed and a Bank-led impact assessment scoping mission is currently underway in Nigeria.

LONDON, 10 December 2012 (IRIN) - In July last year President Boni Yayi of Benin sent a worried letter to the UN secretary-general. His country was being threatened by the activities of pirates, who were scaring shipping away from the ports on which his country's revenues depend. He wanted international help of the kind which had been deployed against piracy off the coast of Somalia.