3.2 Case study of Eswatini (suffering from food shortages)

Question 1

How bad were the problems of food shortages in Eswatini ?

Answer 1

• The government of Eswatini declared a national emergency.
• The harvest produced 10% of the required amount of food.
• 40,000 cattle died
• 25% of the population were short of food and water.
• ## The UN World Food programme (WFP) fed more than 200,000 people.

Question 2

What caused the drought in Eswatini in 2015-16?

Answer 2

The drought was caused by El Niño.

Question 3

What types of food aid are there?

Answer 3

There are two types of food aid:

• emergency food aid to help in the case of natural disasters such as drought.
• long-term aid to deal with more general poverty and poor nutrition ( this is given to the government during non-emergency times to be distributed) However more recently the WFP have been moving away from that and are trying to teach farmers to be self-sufficient.

Question 4

Why do farmers grow cash crops and not food crops. How is this a problem?

Answer 4

Farmers grow cash crops such as cotton and sugar instead of growing maize. The reason for this is because small scale farmers join co-operatives to grow sugar instead of food crops. This is because they have relied on Eswatini’s guaranteed access to markets.
The issue with this is that if sugar prices fall or if trade agreements are canceled they could be left in big trouble.