These seeds (millet) are helping keep families fed and healthy during this dry season as Niger remains in the grip of a worsening food crisis.

DIAGOUROU, Niger – A simple seed may mean the difference between life and death for thousands of families in Niger.

A severe food crisis is verging on widespread famine, putting half the nation’s population of 8 million at risk of going hungry. Farmers can only hope for the rain that will help their millet crops grow—a simple seed that is the main crop and food source for Niger—but more often than not, the rain does not come.

Click here to help families in Niger!

Niger has only a 3-month rainy season, followed by 9 months of hot, dry sun. When the farmers harvest their millet crops at the end of the rainy season, they keep some of the grain for their families, while most of it is sold for income.

But the portion kept is hardly enough to feed a family for 5 or 6 months, much less 12 months. So often families are forced to leave their fields and walk long distances in search of food. And when they do find it, many cannot afford it because the cost of millet has nearly doubled.

“Children do not understand when you tell them there is no food and they must wait,” said Yacouba, OBI’s national director for Niger. “They don’t know the meaning of famine—they only know hunger.”

An estimated 22,000 people in Niger depend on 17 OBI seed banks for survival during the 9-month dry season.

Since 2006, Operation Blessing has been working in partnership with local ministry Hosannah Institute of Sahel, to create a sustainable food program to help thousands of families. Seed banks have been started in 17 villages—covering about half the population of the Diagourou region in Niger or approximately 22,000 people.

The seed banks purchase grain from the villagers during the harvest season, and then during the dry season or times of famine, the banks sell grain back to the villagers at an affordable price.

The benefit is two-fold: the seed banks make food available locally so farmers do not have to leave their fields in search of food, and by purchasing directly from the region, it helps to reinforce the local economy and makes a variety of local seeds available for the next rainy season.

And most importantly, lives are being saved.

“These banks are like an oasis in the desert,” Yacouba said. “They have been very successful and now more families are moving and settling around the banks to get access to food.”

Each bank holds 100 bags of millet, with the capacity to feed 600 families, however as the population around the banks increases, so does the need.

Operation Blessing has increased the capacity of the current seed banks by 25 percent by purchasing and storing more millet and hopes to construct more seed banks for villages in Diagourou.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Every day, Operation Blessing brings nutritious food and essential supplies to thousands facing hunger and poverty in America and around the world. With your help, we can continue to impact lives and give hope to those who need it most. Consider making an online donation today.

 

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