At elaboration, validation of response plan: Stakeholders drum more donations for PULCCA to combat food insecurity.

The appeal for more donations was made on June 20 in Yaounde. This was during a workshop to elaborate and validate the nation’s 2024 National Response Plan to combat food insecurity and malnutrition.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gabriel Mbairobe, chaired the session in the presence of representatives of national and international organisations.

Government instituted the PULCCA project under the National Programme for the Monitoring and Strengthening of Food Security, NPMSFS, in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, to mobilise resources towards addressing the challenge. 

It principally targets the Littoral, North West, South West, East, Adamawa and Far North Regions.

 Presentations during the gathering show that out of a budget of 124,381,547,008 FCFA for 2024, only 45 percent has been raised. 

The figures, stakeholders said, shows there is need for more resources to be mobilised to meet targets for the year.

The plan as presented during the meeting, targets using 48.9% of the expected amount to ensure access to food; 44.9% to strengthen livelihoods and 5.8% is programmed for nutrition and 0.5% to implement and monitor the plan.

Speaking at the event, Minister Gabriel Mbairobe said analysis from stakeholders show the response plan targets reaching out to 2,796,436 people in some 466,073 households “in need of preventive and/or emergency food assistance from March to December 2024”.

Other categories of persons who will be assisted thanks to the plan, the minister said, are those “affected by flooding and vulnerable small-scale livestock farmers”.

The minister said that will be in addition to “approximately 114,315 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition”, especially in various health facilities in the East, Littoral, North, South West and Adamawa Regions.

Agric minister on recent statistics

The minister revealed that analysis for the period March to May 2024 shows “10% of the population is acutely food insecure 2,796,434 people, including approximately; 0.3% are in the emergency phase. That is 84,761 people and 9.75% in the crisis phase. In total, 5,637,853 people are in the pressure phase” of food insecurity.

He also warned that: “The estimated number of people in crisis and emergency phase could reach 2,465,492 or 8.86% of the population”, if actions are not taken.

Citing the period under review, he said the situation of food security and nutrition is good in 14 divisions, while 38 divisions are under pressure.  Eight other Divisions, he told stakeholders, are already in the crisis face when it comes to food security and nutrition.

He lamented that in recent months, the situation has worsened given Boko Haram incursions in the Far North Region and seasonal attacks on sorghum, the crisis in the North West and South West Regions. 

The minister mentioned the arrival of around 2,400 refugees from Chad in the Logone and Chari Division; displacements of 3,000 people in Upper Banyang Subdivision in Manyu Division of the North West Region and 2,800 others in Widikum, Momo Division of the North West Region.

Call for action

Describing the situation as bleak, the minister of agriculture told stakeholders that “it is essential to provide an emergency response and to ensure long-term economic and community resilience, support Internally Displaced Persons and refugees facing various crises”.

With climate change further complicating the situation of food insecurity, the minister also called for the putting in place of adaptive measures to limit damages.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3155 of Monday July 01, 2024