wfp, food aid and local survival in guinea-bissau, 1998-99 - Nina ...

Hjalte Tin : Food Aid in Guinea-Bissau 1998-99. June 2001 ; page 21
starvation.” (Donor Report Guinea-Bissau,1999) But does this assertion hold water?
Available information on the nutritional impact of the food aid is rudimentary and does
not permit more than a discussion of the average impact of the total food aid. Of course,
certain groups received more and others less than the average, but without data –one
excemption is mentioned below – a more detailed assessment is hardly justified.
Table 2 below makes clear the limited contribution of food aid to the total amount of
available food. According to CILSS, a committee monitoring food security for FAO in
the Sahel region (Guinea-Bissau was included in the 1980s for reasons of food aid
politics), 14.490 tons food aid was imported Nov 1 1997-Oct 31 1999, (2.000 tons lower
than the WFP figure). During the war local production of food only dropped 13%, and
rice production actually increased 8% because many of the displaced persons took part
in rice cultivation in the villages where they found shelter. It is also noteworthy that
commerical food import was 5 to 10 times higher than food aid import. The 1998/99
import was particular high because a quantity of cashew-nuts which could not be sold in
June 1998 because of the war was bartered for imported rice in 1999. None of these
figures indicate a famine-like break-down of food-security.
Table 2.
Food production and food import in Guinea-Bissau 1997/98/99/00; tons
Harvest year
1997/98 1998/99 1999/00
1Nov/31 Oct
Production Rice
Other
80.700
64.700
87.200
44.100
80.300
58.400
Total production 145.400 131.300 138.700
Total available after deduction
for seeds etc. 103.000 89.800 97.800
Stock initial 14.500 0 5.800
Commercial import 40.500 54.529 46.800
Export 0 0 0
Food aid 3.500 10.990 6.680
Total available food 161.500 155.319 157.080
Proportion of food aid of
2,2 % 7,1 % 4,3 %
available food
Source: CILSS; 1998, 1999, 2000