World Hunger Series Hunger and Markets - WFP Remote Access ...

8 Markets in emergencies• severe difficulties in food access or availability, owingto sudden economic shocks, market failure oreconomic collapse that erode the capacity ofcommunities and vulnerable populations to meettheir food needs; and• complex emergencies for which the government ofan affected country has requested assistance.Emergencies can severely impair food security throughtheir impacts on market functioning and foodavailability and access, which are determined byincomes and prices (Figure 8.1).Food productionThe most direct impact an emergency can have onfood availability is destruction of standing food cropsand existing stocks, such as by flood, drought andpests. For example, the 1998 flood in Bangladeshdestroyed production equivalent to 10 percent ofannual consumption (del Ninno, Dorosh and Smith,2003). The risks of these kinds of impacts areincreasing, as the number of natural disasters indeveloping countries is rising (Figure 8.2).In conflict situations, food stocks, crops and livestockare often deliberately destroyed or looted. Foodproduction generally diminishes because it is too riskyfor farmers to reach, cultivate or harvest their plots, ortoo difficult to purchase inputs and/or sell the output.In Darfur, for example, the area planted in 2004/2005was only 30–40 percent of the previous five-yearaverage, and only half of this planted area washarvested, because many communities had evacuatedto IDP camps and insecurity prevented farmingoperations. Sorghum and millet yields were,respectively, 36 and 54 percent of the average (Hamidet al., 2005).Impact on incomesEmergencies can affect agricultural incomes throughthe destruction of crops and livestock. They may alsolead to the loss of on- and off-farm work opportunitiesand decreasing wages. Lost crops, fewer employmentopportunities and deteriorating terms of trade tend toaccompany emergency situations, and may deepen thecrisis. In Kenya, Rift Valley fever frequently causesdeaths and/or forced slaughter of cattle. Thesubsequent income loss is a common cause ofhousehold food insecurity.The impact of emergencies on informal transfersdepends on how resilient existing social networksare. When an emergency hits all the households in avillage, transfers among households cannot make upfor the income loss. Public assistance can also crowdout informal private arrangements (Dercon, 2002).Figure 8.2 – Increasing frequency of natural disasters2,500Number of natural disasters2,0001,5001,00050001900–1950Oceania1951–1970 1971–1990 1991–2007Europe Africa America AsiaSource: EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database. www.em-dat.net – Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium108