Weather conditions this year have damaged crops of wheat in Afghanistan. This will cause the deterioration of the food situation in the country. He is expected that the Government can meet the needs of between 9 and 10 million affected, of the 12 million total. Three of every 10 Afghans live in a situation of food insecurity today. Weather conditions in Afghanistan, marked by poor rainfall and a delayed spring, have damaged wheat crops, causing that between 2 and 3 million people require food aid since the beginning of autumn.
The world food program (WFP) announced this week the deterioration of the food situation in the Asian country, which suffers from a chronic political instability, with insurgent groups in different parts of the country and that now faces the uncertainty that opens the next start of the withdrawal of American troops. The Deputy director of Afghanistan, Bradley Guerrant, WFP stated that the evaluation of the Ministry of Afghan agriculture indicates that harvests will in general be 28% lower than last year, which translates into 1.9 million tons less wheat. Of that total, governmental, private imports and donations promised by the India will cover only 300,000 tons, so the rest will have to be covered with food assistance. In total, it is estimated that 12 million Afghans will be affected by the drought, but is expected which the Government can meet the needs of nine to ten million of them. The remaining two to three millions need to receive assistance from external sources and will be added to the 7.3 million Afghans (31% of the population) living in a permanent situation of food insecurity and depending whom WFP designed its annual intervention plan, indicated by the representative of the UN agency. Guerrant revealed that this worsening of the situation in Afghanistan coincides with a deficit of 202 billion dollars for the financing of its operations in this country, a figure which, however, does not take into account that it must now extend the number of beneficiaries. One of the reasons for that problem (although not the only, as stressed Guerrant) is that United States has reduced its contribution, which has spent 110 million this year for 350 million dollars in 2009. The annual budget of WFP for Afghanistan is $ 400 million. Source of the news: A delayed spring will cause million Afghans need food aid