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Insecurity has severely disrupted food availability and access, putting extreme pressure on livelihoods in the Lake Chad Basin, particularly in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Conflict has forced millions of people from their homes and hampered their access to agricultural land, only exacerbating food insecurity, poverty and environmental degradation.
As of August 2017, the Lake Chad Basin crisis has resulted in nearly 2.3 million internally displaced persons, refugees and returnees, making it the second largest displacement crisis in the world (after Syria) and the fastest growing. Most of the displaced people live in the northeastern states of Nigeria, but Cameroon, Chad and Niger also host many displaced people.
In response to the food and livelihood crisis, FAO implemented an extensive programme to assist IDPs, returnees and host communities by providing quality agricultural inputs (seeds and fertilizers) to enable them to make the most of the 2017 planting season. As of June 2017, FAO had supported more than one million people in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States in Nigeria.
Malam Bowa Mara is a retired civil servant who worked in the Yobe State Ministry of Agriculture, Veterinary and Livestock Department and is also a farmer. He lives with his wife and 23 children (including those from a previous marriage).
He dug a small hole on the ridge of the farm and dropped a few seeds into it. He pushed the dirt away with his feet and covered it up, pointing up at a path less than 100 meters away, smoothed by ox-drawn carts. He thought, “This is the road the Boko Haram insurgents used to attack our village. They invaded the village from this road more than three times. The whole village was looted. Every one of us ran for our lives.”
Like most residents of Danmagun village in Yobe State in northeastern Nigeria, Mara fled to safer places. He and his family fled 160 kilometres to neighbouring Jigawa State, where they lived for nearly eight years before returning to his village.
Until this year, he had not farmed since 2009, when Boko Haram attacked his village. After the Nigerian army expelled Boko Haram and liberated some communities, people returned to their homes to rebuild the lives destroyed by the insurgents. Mara returned less than three months before FAO began distributing assistance. He admits that his land has been left fallow due to a lack of inputs.
As part of its response to the crisis, FAO has distributed 2,070 tonnes of cereal, pulse and vegetable seeds and 3,525 tonnes of fertilizer. The emergency seed and fertilizer distribution has benefited 33,000 families in Yobe State, including Mara’s family. While away, he supported his family with his pension, but now, with a lack of funds, Mara has returned to his birth village, feeling uncertain about his future.
“It was a godsend,” Mara said of FAO’s timely distribution of seeds and fertilizers upon his return. “Before this, most people in the community had no seeds to plant. The land was vast, but most people returned to the community with nothing. The whole community was burnt down. So we are rebuilding, and FAO has come with this intervention; it is just a godsend.”
FAO is providing fast-maturing, nutritious cereal and pulse seeds and fertilizers to more than one million displaced people, host communities and returnees to help them rebuild their livelihoods. This emergency assistance is crucial to avoid another bad harvest. Emergency distributions help meet immediate needs but are also the starting point for longer-term activities to strengthen farmers’ resilience. FAO is also assisting farmers and villages with seed multiplication, post-harvest storage, vegetable and fruit production, food processing and rehabilitation of agricultural infrastructure.
“In the past, we used organic fertilizer made from cow dung, but since Boko Haram invaded our community and livestock were stolen, organic fertilizer has become very scarce,” Mara recalled. “But FAO sent fertilizer, the likes of which we had not seen for years. Together with the improved seeds, my family and I have enough food.”
Rebuilding resilient livelihoods
FAO’s Lake Chad Basin Response Strategy aims to address the far-reaching impacts of the crisis and build resilient livelihoods. FAO’s response covers a wide range of solutions, such as helping to restore infrastructure, providing feed and vaccines for livestock, promoting alternative livelihoods and supporting food security analysis. These interventions help to increase the resilience of livelihoods to shocks and support people’s ability to feed themselves and their families.
Agriculture is the main source of employment and income for more than 80% of the population in the Lake Chad Basin. The sector has the potential to create new opportunities for all, including young people entering the labour market. Creating the conditions for sustainable social, economic and environmental recovery can in turn help mitigate some of the root causes of conflict and migration. Addressing these root causes is key to helping people stay on their land when they feel safe and creating the necessary conditions for displaced people to return home.
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