'FAO: Extreme Winter Weather In Central Asia And Its Effects On Food Security', Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations / ReliefWeb, 8 April 2008
EXCERPT: "High poverty and food insecurity rates persist in Central Asia following the collapse and re-structuring of large-scale collective or state farms of the former USSR. In addition to agricultural products, these farms once provided schools, health services, housing and other social services. These responsibilities have since been transferred to local governments that do not have the financial or human resources to execute them. Poverty and food and nutritional insecurity are most dominant in rural areas as well as amongst the urban poor, who are often unemployed. In 2003, poverty rates ranged from 21 percent of the population in Kazakhstan to 70 percent in Kyrgyzstan and 74 percent in Tajikistan. Already coping with the surging prices of energy and food since the summer of 2007, Central Asia's poverty and food insecurity have been further exacerbated by the harsh winter, particularly in impoverished Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as war-torn Afghanistan.
"The aftermath of war, two severe droughts (from 2001-2 and 2006), and an ongoing insurgency have increased food insecurity throughout Afghanistan. The current food shortage has been intensified by the soaring price of wheat (Afghanistan's staple food), which rose by 70 percent in the past year. The brutally cold winter has therefore plunged Afghanistan into a humanitarian crisis. Outside of major cities, roads have been closed due to blizzards and heavy snowfall, and people have had limited access food, medicine, clothing and other supplies. By early March, the number deaths related to cold, avalanches, and snowfall was estimated at over 1,000. Nearly half the deaths, 462, have been in the hard-hit western province of Herat, and dozens of people there have had hands or feet amputated due to frostbite."
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See also:
'Relief supplies reach northern Afghanistan after worst winter in 25 years', Reuters, 3 April 2008
'Afghanistan's wheat problem', Foreign Policy, 11 March 2008
'Food shortages cause grass eating, displacement', Integrated Regional Information Network, 10 March 2008
'UK pledges £3m Afghan food aid', BBC News, 9 March 2008
'Wheat, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Global Security', Informed Comment Global Affairs, 9 March 2008
Related post:
'Food insecurity in Afghanistan increasing sharply', 14 January 2008
