TANZANIA: Food insecurity persists in Dodoma, Singida

NAIROBI, 9 February 2004 (IRIN) - Food security in the central Tanzanian regions of Dodoma and Singida is worsening as stocks run out and alternative means of obtaining food are constrained, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) reported on Friday. Delays and shortfalls in food aid delivery had played a role in increasing food prices and weight loss among children aged under five years in the two regions, FEWS NET said in a food security report covering December 2003 to 22 January 2004. "Prices, particularly for maize, continue to escalate in rural and urban markets," FEWS NET reported. It added that although rainfall had improved since December, the amounts continue to be below normal, putting the current cropping season at stake. FEWS NET said that its vulnerability assessment mission to Dodoma and Singida in June and July 2003 had estimated that from November 2003, some 200,000 people in the area would run short of food before the next harvest. However, it said, "It is clear that many more households have already run out of food stocks, and their alternative means of obtaining food are increasingly constrained." [The FEWS NET report is availale online at: www.fews.net ]