Chad is \u200blifting import duties on some grains and banning exports of other agricultural products \u200cto avert food shortages after intense heat and drought damaged harvests across the country.<\/p>\n
The Central African nation experienced repeated dry spells between July and mid-August, raising concerns about crop development and yields, the United Nations’ Food and \u200bAgriculture Organization said in a report this week.<\/p>\n
In a decree published late Wednesday, Finance \u200bMinister Tahir Hamid Nguilin said wheat, corn, millet and rice, as well as \u2060livestock feed and agricultural equipment, would be exempt from import duties and taxes.<\/p>\n
A separate decree \u200bdated Wednesday and signed by Commerce Minister Mathieu Guibolo Fanga banned exports of millet, corn, rice, sorghum, \u200bwheat and cotton seed.<\/p>\n
“The central, eastern and northern regions are the hardest hit by the drought,” Keda Ballah, Chad’s minister of agricultural production and industrialization, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The government is taking steps to help farmers grow off-season crops \u200bin irrigated areas, Ballah said.<\/p>\n
“This is the only way to prevent famine in certain regions, \u200band we are aware of that,” he said.<\/p>\n
The World Food Programme said earlier this year that more than 3 \u200cmillion \u2060people would face acute food insecurity during the lean season from June to August.<\/p>\n
NO FARMER SPARED<\/strong><\/p>\n Mahamat Moussa Ali, a farmer in the west-central province of Chari-Baguirmi, told Reuters that drought had wiped out 12 hectares of his corn crop.<\/p>\n He said the government failed to warn farmers about the \u200bheatwave, leaving them unable to \u200bprepare for the \u2060extreme weather.<\/p>\n “What concerns authorities is the food shortage in the markets … We’re definitely going to starve because, in our community, no farmer has been \u200bspared,” he said.<\/p>\n Djibrilla Abba Bello, a nomadic herder in the Mayo-Kebbi Ouest \u200bregion, said \u2060streams and ponds that normally supply water for livestock at this time of year had dried up.<\/p>\n “Our animals are losing weight, producing less milk and having trouble walking long distances … Some of us have \u2060sought refuge \u200bin the Central African Republic despite the insecurity there: \u200bthey chose to take the risk for the sake of their herds,” Bello said, adding he planned to join them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chad is \u200blifting import duties on some grains and banning exports of other agricultural products \u200cto avert food shortages after intense heat and drought damaged harvests across the country. The Central African nation experienced repeated dry spells between July and mid-August, raising concerns about crop development and yields, the United Nations’ Food and \u200bAgriculture Organization […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,32,2362,34],"tags":[475,5452,5451],"class_list":["post-21992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-economy","category-featured","category-society","tag-chad","tag-chari-baguirmi","tag-mahamat-moussa-ali"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21994,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21992\/revisions\/21994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}