Household food availability returning to normal as harvests continue
Key Messages
Rainfall continued in the first dekad of October with satisfactory spatial and temporal distribution. This normal to late end of rainfall favors the maturation of late seedlings. Overall, so far crops 50 to 75 percent of maize and cowpeas crops and around 25 percent of millet and sorghum crops have been harvested.
Household food availability has normalized with access to new crops. Similarly, their incomes are improving with the sale of recently harvested cash crops, particularly cowpeas and groundnuts. In addition, the last cash or food distribution operations by humanitarian actors continued until October in livelihood zones 8, 7 and 5, allowing beneficiaries to not need to sell off their new crop stocks.
In markets, prices of staple cereals (millet, sorghum, maize) decreased compared to the previous month. Their prices remain stable overall compared to last year, but slightly higher than the five-year average: 14 percent for maize, 17 percent for millet and 18 percent for sorghum. Producer prices for cowpeas and groundnuts are each 16 percent higher than the average.
The security situation has deteriorated over the past two months with the increase in terrorist attacks (21 attacks) in border areas, particularly in the provinces of Kompienga, Komandjari (Eastern region) and Soum (Sahel region). OCHA (October 2018) estimates the number of IDPs at 38,982, mainly in Soum province.