FAO, WFP to assist farmers in Nigeria, Congo
The Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have stepped up efforts to assist farmers and alleviate hunger in Nigeria and Congo. In north-eastern Nigeria, hunger has considerably declined for the first time since the Boko Haram crisis. According to the latest Cadre Harmonise food security analysis, the number of people living in the three states affected by violence who are facing acute hunger has halved since last August from 5.2 million to 2.6 million. The analysis attributed this to an overall improved security situation and the ramping up of humanitarian and longer-term livelihoods assistance by the Nigerian government and its partners. FAO has helped farmers in the area by providing cowpea, maize, millet, sorghum, vegetable seeds and fertilises to one million people - internally displaced people, returned refugees and host communities - to get them through the last rainy season which ended in September 2017. Food stocks b...