1987-1991 Salamati famine

The 1987-1991 Salamati famine (Arabic : 1987-1991 مجاعة سلاماتي), also known as the Kharrabi famine, was a period of widespread starvation in Salamat during the last years of Jalil Al Kharrabi's regime. The famine has heavily affected the country, and 800 000 died during the famine, although estimations range from 350 000 deaths to 2.2 million deaths.

Background

Salamat was an authoritarian socialist country, with Jalil Al Kharrabi in power. Multiple events like the murder of Majid Muhammad resulted in an international embargo and sanctions, thus privating Salamat from food imports, except imports from Ezenchia, which was a major ally.

Salamat always was more or less an agrarian society, like its neighbor Khirmania, however industrialization took place sooner and people started migrating to cities in the 50s and 60s, eventually giving up their farms.

In 1980, Al Kharrabi launched the agricultural revolution, in an attempt to force collectivization of farms, and change the system of distribution of food. The agricultural revolution was the cause of a food insecurity crisis directly after its implementation in 1981 among farmers, even though it didn't spread out in the rest of the country.

Timeline

1987

The food shortage started in mid-1987, after the exceptionally dry wet season of 1986-1987, with 86 mm of rainfall in Dar Al Hamma in January compared to the average 248 mm. Quickly, the dry season started in March, as expected, and the recolt of maize, wheat, potatoes and rice was incredibly low compared to the annual average, and with only manioc having an average yield. The food distribution system noticed this decrease, and lowered the allocated food amount to farmers, to keep a consistent amount for cities. This declenched a revolt among farmers, with hundreds raiding food storage depots and stealing grains.

Respectively, the yield of maize, wheat, potatoes and rice decreased from 6.3 tons/ha, 2.8 tons/ha, 13.6 tons/ha and 6.1 tons/ha in average, to 3.9 tons/ha, 1.9 tons/ha, 10.5 tons/ha and 3.2 tons/ha in the 1987 Agricultural report of Salamat. The manioc yield, decreased from 19.7 tons/ha to 17.4 tons/ha, which was still considered "acceptable".

In April, the distribution of the wet season recolts began. 80% of the recolt was shipped to big cities, with the rest left to the countryside. One week after the end of the distribution, numerous officials declared that the amount of food shipped was insufficient, and required that more reserves should be sent. However, the Agriculture Bureau, the organism charged of distributing the grains to various parts of the country, declared that all of the year's recolt were shipped, and that sending more food was impossible.

On May 8 1987, Karim Al Diwad, the president of the Agriculture Bureau, declared in a conference that "there is no drought, everything is good" as an effort to reassure both the population and other countries that there wasn't any problem with the distribution system and the recolts. However, when the news that a collective farm was vandalized by hungry farmers in Northeastern Salamat in late May surfaced, the situation was clear ; there was a food shortage. Salamat could not ask for relief to the international community, due to the sanctions imposed. Al Kharrabi turned to Ezenchia instead. A few days later, 7 000 tons of wheat and rice arrived at Dar Al Hamma International Airport as an effort to relieve the food shortage.

The Salamati authorities launched a campaign in September, at the end of the dry season, encouraging farmers to stop growing rice in favor for manioc, which was a very minor crop in Salamat. Though, farmers decided to continue growing rice, as it had a higher price to sell.