The United Nations agencies warned on Friday that 6.7 million people in Sudan require food aid despite good harvest.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said in a joint statement that most of the needy are found in Darfur region of western Sudan, southern Sudan and marginal areas in central and eastern parts of the country.

"This is a heartening picture compared to previous years and the people of Sudan need all the help they can get, particularly from nature. But many also need the help of the international community, especially in the troubled region of Darfur and in southern Sudan, which is just beginning to recover from more than 20 years of civil war," said WFP Country Director Ramiro Lopes da Silva.

The statement said most of the needy have either been forced to flee their homes by fighting or are in the process of returning home following the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

"Moreover, vulnerable households will for the most part be unable to benefit from the harvest due to the currently prevailing high cereal prices," it said.

The FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission, carried out late last year, found that Sudan's overall cereal production in 2005/06 amounted to about 5.3 million tons, 55 percent higher than the very poor 2004/05 harvest and 17 percent above the average of the previous five years.

"Favorable rainfall over most of the country, low incidence of pests and diseases, improved security in southern Sudan and slightly improved security in Darfur at planting time starting last May resulted in an increased area of cultivation," said the report.

The UN agencies said despite the estimated above average crop, the mission found that some 6.7 million people require about 800, 000 tons of targeted food assistance in 2006.

"These beneficiaries include more than two million internally displaced persons (IDPs), about 900,000 returnees and close to 3.5 million highly vulnerable people in Darfur, southern Sudan and marginal areas of central and eastern parts of the country," it said.

They cited unequal income distribution, problems of physical and financial access to food due to war, displacement, and poor infrastructure, a weak marketing system and economic isolation as some of the main factors behind the food insecurity of millions of people and their exposure to destitution, hunger and malnutrition.

"Timely assistance to the agricultural sector, including emergency support to returnees and other vulnerable farming communities before the start of the next cropping season in April/ May in southern Sudan and June/July in northern Sudan, is urgently required," said Henri Josserand, chief of FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System.

According to the UN agencies, the assessment also found that, in 2005, the timely provision of appropriate seeds and tools by FAO and other humanitarian agencies benefited a large number of needy farmers.

"A WFP road rehabilitation project in the south has increased trade, especially between Uganda and the state of Central Equatoria, and between Kenya and the state of Eastern Equatoria," it said.

But attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army in the south/ southeast remain a constant threat to any return to normal living and some key roads remain impassable thereby inhibiting large- scale trade, said the UN agencies.

WFP said it was planning to mobilize and distribute 731,000 tons of food to more than six million people across Sudan in 2006.

FAO recently appealed for 40 million U.S. dollars to support its agricultural relief and recovery activities throughout the country in 2006, which include the distribution of seeds and tools, fishing equipment and livestock medicines to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable families.

Source: Xinhua