Reference Date: 06-June-2024

Cereal production affected by increased violence, population displacements, plant diseases and effects of climate change in form of rainfalls

In northern and central regions, the harvest of the main season maize crops was completed in January 2024, while it finalized at the end of February in southern provinces. In bimodal central provinces, harvesting of the secondary season maize crop started in March under overall favourable weather conditions. In South Kivu, widespread floods between November 2023 and January 2024 affected the sowing, growing and harvesting of critical staple crops.

The conflict between various non‑state armed groups and government, regional and international forces as well as the expansion of high‑intensity conflict into North Kivu Province continued to disrupt agricultural activities and limited farmers’ access to crop growing areas. As a result, the aggregate 2024 crop production is expected to be below the five‑year average.

Inflation expected to remain at high levels due to depreciation of national currency

Prices of imported staple foods are at high levels due to limited availability in local markets, resulting from reduced imports and high transport costs. The average price of some basic food commodities such as beans, corn flour and rice in April 2024, was 50 percent higher than one year before and above the five‑year average.

According to the national central bank, inflation reached 22.6 percent in 2023 compared to 9.2 percent in 2022 due to the continuous depreciation of the national currency.

Over 23 million people estimated to be severely food insecure in 2024

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, published in September 2023, about 23.4 million people (22 percent of the analysed population) are projected to face IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or worse levels of acute food insecurity between January and June 2024, including 2.9 million people facing IPC Phase 4 (Emergency).

According to the latest IPC Acute Malnutrition analysis in the country, conducted in January 2024, over 1.1 million children under the age of five were estimated to face elevated levels of acute malnutrition between July 2023 and June 2024, including 254 000 children who are severely malnourished. In addition, about 605 000 pregnant or lactating women were estimated to be facing elevated levels of acute malnutrition in the reporting period. This is mainly due to acute food insecurity levels, high prevalence of childhood illnesses, such as malaria and diarrhoea, frequent outbreaks of measles and cholera, inaccessibility to adequate sanitation facilities and very limited access to drinking water.

Disclaimer: The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

This brief was prepared using the following data/tools:
FAO/GIEWS Country Cereal Balance Sheet (CCBS) https://www.fao.org/giews/data-tools/en/ .

FAO/GIEWS Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) Tool https://fpma.fao.org/ .

FAO/GIEWS Earth Observation for Crop Monitoring https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/ .

Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) https://www.ipcinfo.org/ .