More than 4.4 million people are “severe” food insecurity due to insufficient harvests. The majority of the popalion still depends on artisanal agriculture.
Le Monde with AFP
Niger has decided to cause rain using chemicals in the face of drought which this year generated a severe food crisis in this arid country, AFP learned from the services of the services of the services on Thursday 25 August Meteorology. This “rains caused” technology consists, using an airplane, in introducing chemicals into the clouds, including a mixture of money, sodium and acetone.
“It was necessary to act on this problem of drought” in order to have “many more rainy days and at the same time increase the quantity of rains,” explained Katiellou Gaptia Lawan, director of Nigerian meteorology who pilots the ‘Operation with the Malian consortium Ibi Air.
He emphasizes that there are in Niger “a lot of prolonged dry sequences which disturb the development of cultures and pastures”. According to him, punctual interventions must therefore especially target areas of cultivation or pasture, when they experience “long rainfall reputs”.
The west of the country, including the Niamey region, benefited from the first interventions in early August, after several weeks without rains. The operation will continue until the end of September, the usual period of the end of the rainy season in Niger.
Drought and floods
The climate in this country is of the Sahelian type, characterized by a long dry season from eight to ten months and a short rainy season which lasts from three to four months, from June to September. The number of rainy days varies from north to south, with annual rainfall between less than 100 mm, mainly in the North, and 700-800 mm.
However, floods recently affected the desert north due to climate change, according to Nigerian authorities. In addition to drought in several regions, others are affected by serious floods which left 53 dead, 87,942 victims and 74 injured, according to a latest official assessment.
Due to drought and jihadist violence that prevented the peasants from cultivating their fields, Niger is struck this year by a serious food crisis. According to the government, more than 4.4 million people are “severe” food insecurity, or about 20 % of the population. The rate of acute malnutrition in children is likely to be 12.5 %, exceeding the emergency threshold of 10 % set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Another 80 % of Nigeriens live from artisanal agriculture strongly dependent on the rains and the country has more than 52 million cattle heads, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Breeding.