MALNUTRITION: Animals need to be fed as well

DORI/OUAGADOUGOU, 13 May 2010 (IRIN) - Three men yank at the limbs and tail of an emaciated cow to put it into a cart. Animals arriving daily by truck in the Burkina capital Ouagadougou from all over the country are too weak to stand, much less walk. Erratic rains last year in Burkina, where animal husbandry is the main livelihood in many regions, resulted in widespread shortages of water and pasture. Aid workers and livestock farmers say the poor condition of local livestock - animals that have not already migrated in search of pasture - is hitting families' food security. The livestock families keep at home are critical sources of food and revenue. "The worry is for those [animals] that have stayed, given the lack of food and water for them," said Stéphane Degueurce of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Burkina, who recently travelled to affected areas in Burkina's north and Sahel regions. "It's a chain," he said. "The animals have nothing to eat so they don't produce and cannot be a source of revenue; so people have a tough time feeding the family but also their animals. And round it goes. Regression sets in and poverty deepens." WFP representative in Burkina Annalisa Conte said shoring up livestock will be critical for these communities. "If we want to safeguard these communities' food security, this year there must be assistance for the livestock that has stayed put. This way you're protecting these families' capital and you're ensuring that animals will produce milk. You could give food to the pastoralists, but they are still going to lose their capital - the animals. So where do you go from there to get things back on track?" Degueurce said: "One thing that struck us during the missions in March and April: Most people do not ask for food for themselves, for their families; they ask for food for their animals." Conte said the current situation points to a gap in the food insecurity response, which typically focuses on aid to people in the form of subsidized prices for staple foods, not necessarily to animals.