Significant deterioration in livelihoods reduces access to food for poor households

The security situation remains volatile and has deteriorated in the Ménaka and Mopti regions, with an increase in armed attacks against the military and civilians, leading to population displacement and the abandonment of cultivated fields. The deterioration in livelihoods (loss of jobs, theft/looting of goods, etc.) and the atypical recourse to reduced food and non-food expenditure and the resulting borrowing, further increase the exposure of poor households to food insecurity, particularly in Ménaka, where humanitarian access remains very limited. 

The agricultural season is progressing at an average pace across the country, thanks to the timely arrival of rainfall, with cumulative rainfall from May 1^er to July 20 considered normal to deficient across the country. According to the Direction Nationale de l'Agriculture, cereal production forecasts are up 10% on the five-year average.) However, insecurity in the central and northern parts of the country and difficulties in accessing agricultural inputs will adversely affect production in some areas.

Market supplies of cereals remain adequate on the whole, even if the seasonal drop observed is more marked than in an average year. The rise in staple food prices by more than 50% compared with the five-year average, and the deterioration in livestock/cereals terms of trade linked to high cereal prices, are reducing household access to food.

Crisis food insecurity (IPC Phase 3) will continue until September 2022 for poor households in the insecure areas of the North, the Liptako Gourma zone, and much more markedly in the Ménaka region, facing Crisis! (IPC Phase 3!) due to the exacerbation of insecurity, which has led to villages being abandoned, significant losses of goods, a reduction in the number of meals and very limited humanitarian access in a context of rising prices that are not conducive to access to food. Elsewhere, ongoing humanitarian assistance in the form of food and non-food items from the government and partners will limit the use of negative coping strategies in beneficiary areas.