SOUTHERN AFRICA: Vouchers to help drought-hit farmers

A voucher system to access agricultural inputs could put farmers in disaster-hit Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho on the road to recovery, according to a senior UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) official.

The vouchers - with cash values between US$15 and US$75, depending on the country - allowed farmers to purchase inputs at mobile trade fairs organised by the FAO. Previously, the FAO and other relief agencies provided a pre-selected combination of seeds and tools.

"But this did not meet the precise requirements of beneficiaries living in different agricultural zones and conditions," said James Breen, the FAO's regional emergency agronomist. "The vouchers not only help farmers and their beneficiaries become more food secure, in the long term it also helps the economy, as it promotes local input dealers through the fairs."

Anne Bauer, Director of the FAO's Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division, pointed out that "The more we can support quality farm outputs and help diversify crops and strengthen capacities, the fewer people will need food aid and other handouts next season."

The new system, pioneered in Kenya and later in Sudan by the non-governmental organisation, Catholic Relief Services, dispenses small-denomination vouchers printed in various colours so that farmers can choose from the seeds, fertiliser, tools and tillage services on offer.

"Let's hope that we now get adequate rainfall"

FAO has distributed over 1,000 metric tonnes of seeds, as well as fertiliser and tools, to over 110,000 poor farmers in three southern African countries - Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique - through the trade fairs, which took place from September to November.

"This system is probably more effective than providing input subsidies because in most instances these farmers do not have any cash," Breen said. "Let's hope that we now get adequate rainfall."

In Lesotho the drought has been so severe that in July the government declared a state of emergency after a UN survey estimated that 30 percent of the country's people would need humanitarian assistance.

Drought in neighbouring Swaziland left 40 percent of the population of just over one million with acute food and water shortages. Mozambique was hit with three natural disasters in the last growing season - flood, cyclone and drought - resulting in cereal losses as high as 99 percent in some affected areas.

"The lack of cash over the past 10 years has left maize cribs empty," said John Weatherson, FAO Emergency Coordinator in Swaziland. "The draught oxen population is greatly reduced; the cattle population has been hammered by drought, with cows either dead or sold as a coping mechanism."