NIAMEY, Niger (from the IHT):
The images from this impoverished West African country have been unrelentingly grim: hungry children with stick-thin arms and swollen bellies, mothers carrying babies hundreds of miles to look for food after a poor harvest and high prices put local staples out of reach. A few months ago, those images prompted a torrent of food aid from Western donors.
But now, after a season of good rains, Niger's farmers are producing a bumper crop of millet, the national staple. This should be a cause for rejoicing, yet in one of the twists that mark life in the world's poorest countries, the aid that was intended to save lives could ruin the harvest for many of Niger's farmers by driving down prices.
The newly harvested millet and the donated food will reach market stalls at the same time and, because of depressed prices, poor farming families may be forced to sell produce normally set aside for their own use so they can pay off debts....
Jeremy Lester, a senior European Union official in Niger, insisted, "People responsible for the distributions have a responsibility to monitor prices and be prepared to stop giving out food if prices fall too low."
"This is an emergency response to a chronic problem," Lester said, referring to the distribution of food aid. "And as these responses go, they often create as many problems as they solve: The poorest will have to continue to sell cheap and buy dear."
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