Impact of Global Food Crisis on ACDI/VOCA Programs

West Bank

An increase in prices overall and a drop in the value of the dollar compared to the Israeli shekel have affected our program of water management grants which targets poor households. Many beneficiaries, especially the very marginalized, could not meet the threshold of 20 to 25 percent of the cost of interventions and dropped out, forcing us to repeat the beneficiary selection process and/or shift to other target areas. In some of the targeted communities the number of dropouts reached 20 percent as compared to roughly 3 percent a year ago.

Philippines

We have reduced our cocoa smallholder beneficiary count by 20,000 as a result of higher input costs and a weakened dollar.

Uganda

Fertilizers have increased in price 30 to 60 percent over the past year. As a result the types and quantities of inputs for demonstration plots and some mother gardens have been reduced. With the reduction in fertilizers, we will also see a reduction in yields and may have to adjust target yields and/or reduce the number of beneficiaries. Farmers may be more reluctant to invest in higher-priced inputs.

On the food distribution side, the increase in the cost of distribution and of the monetization commodity has pushed up program costs. Because of USAID cuts in the distribution commodity, we have had to reduce the number of food aid beneficiaries by 11,000 for FY 08.

Iraq

Of particular impact is the 24 percent increase in individual business inventory capital grants provided to crossfire victims of Coalition Forces under the Marla Fund. The increase is needed to cover higher costs of food (e.g., rice and wheat flour) and cement. Moreover, local cement transport costs have also increased. This obviously reduces the number of victims that can be reached.

Haiti

As a new Title II Program, our resources were cut after only two months on the ground. For monetization funds, we lost 1,750 MT of hard red wheat out of an approved 8,000 MT due to the new commodity calculator values for wheat. For our Mother-to-Child Health and Nutrition program, we had been approved for 670 MT of food for 9,750 beneficiaries in FY08, but were cut to 130 MT, which will reduce beneficiaries to below 2,000. We had a slight respite on the wheat cut due to high global wheat prices, so we can actively begin intensive agricultural and early warning systems activities in the southeast.

Ethiopia

The impending Food for Progress program will be adversely affected by increases in prices of staple food crops and edible oil, which in the past six-months have increased by 111 percent and 86 percent, respectively. Effects will be:

• shortage of feed ingredients (byproducts of grains)
• inefficient operation of feed mills (due to unavailability of feed ingredients)
• increased price of feed beyond the reach of smallholder farmers
• inadequate feeding of dairy cows and other animals
• decreased supply of dairy products and fattened animals
• decreased income of dairy and livestock marketing cooperatives and member farmers

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