By Mahamat Ramadane
N’DJAMENA, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Chad is lifting import duties on some grains and banning exports of other agricultural products to avert food shortages after intense heat and drought damaged harvests across the country.
The Central African nation experienced repeated dry spells between July and mid-August, raising concerns about crop development and yields, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report this week.
In a decree published late Wednesday, Finance Minister Tahir Hamid Nguilin said wheat, corn, millet and rice, as well as livestock feed and agricultural equipment, would be exempt from import duties and taxes.
A separate decree dated Wednesday and signed by Commerce Minister Mathieu Guibolo Fanga banned exports of millet, corn, rice, sorghum, wheat and cotton seed.
“The central, eastern and northern regions are the hardest hit by the drought,” Keda Ballah, Chad’s minister of agricultural production and industrialization, told Reuters.
The government is taking steps to help farmers grow off-season crops in irrigated areas, Ballah said.
“This is the only way to prevent famine in certain regions, and we are aware of that,” he said.
The World Food Programme said earlier this year that more than 3 million people would face acute food insecurity during the lean season from June to August.
NO FARMER SPARED
Mahamat Moussa Ali, a farmer in the west-central province of Chari-Baguirmi, told Reuters that drought had wiped out 12 hectares of his corn crop.
He said the government failed to warn farmers about the heatwave, leaving them unable to prepare for the extreme weather.
“What concerns authorities is the food shortage in the markets … We’re definitely going to starve because, in our community, no farmer has been spared,” he said.
Djibrilla Abba Bello, a nomadic herder in the Mayo-Kebbi Ouest region, said streams and ponds that normally supply water for livestock at this time of year had dried up.
“Our animals are losing weight, producing less milk and having trouble walking long distances … Some of us have sought refuge in the Central African Republic despite the insecurity there: they chose to take the risk for the sake of their herds,” Bello said, adding he planned to join them.
(Reporting by Mahamat Ramadane. Additional reporting and writing by Anait Miridzhanian. Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Mark Potter)
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