SUDAN* (1 June)
Harvesting of the 2005 wheat crop is complete and output is forecast to be about average. Total cereal production in 2004/05 is estimated at 3.4 million tonnes, about 43 percent below the previous year and about 22 percent below the average of the previous five years.
The poor harvest coupled with conflict and population displacements have resulted in a precarious food situation in several parts of the country. Humanitarian agencies in Sudan have warned that food supplies for millions of families across Sudan are running critically low, and many will face severe shortages unless more funds for food and agricultural assistance are forthcoming. The current planting season is also jeopardised.
The continued crisis in Greater Darfur remains the most pressing humanitarian crisis. In southern Sudan, the optimism that followed the peace deal signed in January 2005 to end the war has prompted large number of Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries to trek back to their villages. The humanitarian challenges and rehabilitation and reconstruction needs of the shattered economy and infrastructure will be enormous. According to a joint UN agency assessment, access to sufficient food is worsening for the returnees and poor households in the south-western Sudanese region of Bahr el Ghazal and malnutrition levels are reportedly starting to rise in southern Sudan.
A revised Emergency Operation (EMOP) was jointly approved on 9 June 2005 by FAO and WFP for food assistance for 3.2 million people affected by war in Greater Darfur for a period of 12 months (1 January 2005 to 31 December 2005). The total revised budget now totals US$561.5 million. In addition, FAO has appealed for nearly US$62 million for emergency assistance to the country's agriculture sector for 2005. So far it has received only 17 percent of the funds requested. Additional pledges are urgently needed.