Niger Soothsayers Predict Floods and Good Harvest
Date: 16-Feb-06
Country: NIGER
Although all forms of long-term weather forecasting are notoriously difficult, the Azna soothsayers have been broadly correct over the last two years.
Members of the Hausa ethnic group who live in southeastern Niger, the soothsayers read signs from patterns in the dust at a ceremony each year and their predictions are widely believed by farmers who till the country's arid savannah.
The Azna diviners predict strong rains starting in May followed by a period of flooding ahead of a rich agricultural season from June to September, state television reported late on Tuesday.
Landlocked Niger is one of the world's poorest and least developed countries, with many people outside the main cities living as subsistence farmers in mud-brick buildings on the edge of the Sahara desert.
In 2004, the Azna warned of a difficult farming season marked by a lack of rain. That year the country had a cereal deficit of 223,000 tonnes due to drought and a locust plague.
The shortfall helped trigger a crisis which left an estimated 3.6 million people short of food - a third of the population - with malnutrition threatening the lives of tens of thousands of children.
Last year, the Azna predicted a stronger harvest and the country ended up with a 21,000 tonne cereal surplus.
