Poor households will have a harsher lean season due to atypically high food prices

• Retail prices of essential foods continue to rise across the country because of the global impact of the war in Ukraine and staying moderately to significantly above 2022 levels and the five-year average through March 2023. FEWS NET price data collected in key markets across Yaoundé and Douala show a 6 to 12 percent increase for maize, tubers, and legumes prices between February and March. However, recent price increases have also been associated with seasonally reduced supplies from the hinterland following the rise in transportation and baggage costs. Poor households in these cities,  mostly market reliant,  continue to see their purchasing power and food access decline.  Many accumulate debts and engage in Stressed (IPC Phase 2) negative coping to meet their dietary needs, including reducing portions and meal frequencies.

• Households affected by conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions continue to maintain an atypically high and seasonally early reliance on market purchases for basic grains following an early depletion of own-produced stocks from consecutive years of low harvests. It is expected that as the lean season progresses and food purchases increase and at higher prices than usual, poor households in these regions will likely only be able to ensure a minimal diet, by engaging in severe Crisis (IPC Phase 3) coping such as borrowing, skipping meals, begging, and sending children to eat elsewhere.  However, an improvement of outcomes to Stressed (IPC Phase 2) is likely around July or August for most households in the Northwest and Southwest regions when the new harvest is expected to boost household food supplies and incomes from crop sales.

• Sowing activities for main-season crops have begun in several cropping areas following a timely start of the March to May rainfall in the country’s unimodal and bi-modal southern parts. Price trends for fertilizers remain significantly above the five-year average. Many poor households are expected to continue reducing the required doses of fertilizers or not use them, with anticipated negative impacts on crop yields and production. Many poor households depend on  depend on casual agricultural  labor, such as planting and tilling, to supplement food purchases at this time of the year. However, high fertilizer prices limit the area cultivated, especially for large farms and agro-industries, reducing agricultural labor supply and incomes for poor households.

• Cereal prices in all markets in the Far North region remained high in March despite ongoing off-season harvests driven by strong export demand. FEWS NET price monitoring data for March shows that sorghum and maize prices in key markets in the region witnessed only a 3-6 percent drop compared to February but remained significantly above 2022 and the five-year average. Key informants have reported a boost in cereal and livestock trade with  Nigeria and Chad following the official re-opening of the Gambarou-Fotokol-Kousseri-N'Djamena corridor last December 2022. In Mayo-Sava, Mayo-Tsanaga, and Logone-et-Chari divisions, low household purchasing power continues driving  Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes and negative coping. As harvests begin in September, improved food supplies are expected to help households in this zone recover from the harsh impact of the lean season.

FEWS NET: Cameroon Key Messages update: Atypically high food prices will contribute to a harsher lean season for poor households, March 2023