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Food

The Ebola Crisis May Become a Food Crisis

As farmers are forced to abandon their crops and travel restrictions affecting import trade, international organisations are getting ready to act on an impending food crisis in Ebola-stricken Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Every day we seem to be confronted with another piece of startling news surrounding the ebola outbreak, which could now, sources say, could eventually exceed 20,000 cases and has so far left more than 1,500 deaths in its wake.

The latest bulletins suggest that international organisations are getting ready to act on an impending food crisis in ebola-stricken Guinea and Sierra Leone, as well as Liberia—a country already in the midst of a humanitarian crisis—because areas that are quarantined will not only be unable to be harvested by farmers, but will also become unable to accommodate exports or imports, even though blockades had previously been lifted.

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A spokeswoman for the World Food Program told The Washington Post that "a health crisis will become a food crisis."

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A family making supper in a Liberian refugee camp. Photo via the Department for International Development.

Rather than the disease itself, it appears that, in the areas that are quarantined, it's food shortage that is causing immediate concern. "People are saying: 'We're not afraid of dying from Ebola, we're starving,'" said Jean-Alexandre Scaglia, a representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Liberia.

Such is the problem with the inability to plan aid drops on the ground, where those in need can detail exactly what they need and when; people panic and riot if they are not assured adequate access to food. Last week, a riot broke out in West Point—a shantytown of 70,000 people from Monrovia, Liberia's capital—when the government's quarantines were put into practice.

People want to leave the barricades to feed their families.

A food crisis is rarely a drawn-out affair, either—they happen quickly and savagely. "You don't realise until one morning you wake up, you go to the shop, and no one has anything to sell you," said Scaglia. The government began an emergency distribution of rice on Monday—one six-kilo bag for every five residents—but the problem is that no one knows when the next load will be coming.

This is the time of year in West Africa where the harvests from the year previous have largely run out, often called "the lean season." Between June and September, stocks of locally-produced food sources begin to decrease, which causes a rise in cost and a greater reliance on basic staples—grains, palm oil, cassava—that have been imported.

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People had hope for this year's harvest, though. The rainfall had been good, crop production had promise. That was, of course, until ebola broke out. It came just as farmers were getting ready to head into the fields, which, of course, they do together in groups. Grouping together isn't an option now—lots of people in close proximity can allow the disease to spread.

Local markets within severely ebola-hit areas, like Sierra Leone's Kailahun, have been closed, too, which will have a dramatic effect on the 78 percent of its population that relies on them. Popular meat sources like the ebola-carrying fruit bat had already disappeared from the markets before their closures. It's worth bearing in mind, too, that most Sierra Leoneans only grow enough food to feed their families. Since the end of its civil war in 2002, many people still live below the poverty line.

Import trade among the borders of the three ebola-stricken countries is, of course, imperative to ensure that staples reach people, and, according to The Washington Post, around 30 percent of rice consumed in Sierra Leone and 80 percent of the meat consumed in Liberia comes from Guinea, across the border. But with trade being halted with travel restrictions, farmers may well end up having to abandon their fields unless they get local support. The travel bans also threaten the Ivory Coast's vast cocoa export (responsible for 37 percent of the world's supply), because staff cannot make any plans for the crops in the wake of the crisis.

While food aid from the UN agency—hoped to reach a million stranded people and provide ready-cooked meals for those who are in isolation—might meet immediate needs, it may take a long time to rebuild food supplies once the ebola outbreak has been limited. International organisations will have to provide reliable, continued support to help farmers find their feet again, and introduce new livestock sources so that those in affected areas can begin producing meat for themselves.

It may be a long road back for West Africa once the outbreak is tamed.