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Rural poverty in Chad

Chad is one of the world's poorest countries. In 2003 over 54 per cent of the population were living below the poverty line. For much of the population health and social conditions are inadequate. Chronic food shortages are widespread, and malnutrition levels among young children are high. About 40 per cent of children up to six years suffer from chronic malnutrition, and 39 per cent are undersize for their age. These statistics are slightly higher in rural as opposed to urban areas (L'Enquête Démographique et de Santé au Tchad). Nearly 90 per cent of Chadians are illiterate.

Poverty is most severe in rural areas. About 80 per cent of the population depend on farming or herding or gathering forest products for a livelihood. Rural communities are often extremely isolated. Many people speak neither Arabic nor French, the country's official languages, but one of 120 local dialects.

Food security is a major problem across the nation. Climatic variations, particularly drought, can have a devastating effect on harvests of staple foods such as millet, sorghum, rice and maize. Production of staple grains can vary widely from as little as 330,000 tonnes in a poor year to 1.35 million tonnes in a good year.

Who and where are the country’s rural poor people?

Poverty affects every region of Chad. Most Chadians live in the central and southern parts of the country, which are also the areas that are most vulnerable to climatic variations and most exposed to food insecurity. Climatic conditions are extreme, from drought to torrential rain and flooding.

Rainfall is most frequent and reliable in the south of the country and declines gradually to the north until it becomes very scarce in the Sahara desert area. A belt of land crossing the central Sahel area marks the point where rainfed agriculture ends, and rainfall becomes insufficient to cultivate crops without irrigation. The land surrounding this area is marginal. The quantity of rainfall can vary dramatically from one year to the next. A year, or a longer period of drought, can be followed by heavy rains bringing floods that destroy crops. Due to the nature of the rains and the human modification of the natural soil cover, soil erosion and desertification are key factors leading to degradation of the environment.

For the people who live in the central Sahelian belt, livelihoods are extremely precarious. The most vulnerable people are those who are socially disadvantaged; especially households headed by women, and certain ethnic castes within complex rural societies. This area is best suited to herding (sheep, goats, cattle and dromedaries) following flexible migration patterns which make the most of seasonally available natural resources and can adapt to changing environmental conditions and the threat of pests.

Women form the backbone of the rural economy. They work in the fields and tend livestock, and they are also responsible for most household chores, such as caring for children, cooking, and fetching water and firewood. As a result of mortality and male migration, women now outnumber men, and about 23 per cent of households are headed by single women. These households are particularly vulnerable to poverty.

Despite their heavy workloads and family responsibilities, women remain marginalized within society. Restrictive social practices limit women's access to education, information, technology and training, and to resources such as land and rural finance.

Why are they poor?

As a landlocked country lacking abundant natural resources, Chad has always been one of the more disadvantaged African countries. Three decades of internal conflict and political instability have disrupted social and migratory patterns and worsened poverty in the country. The frequent droughts of the 1970s and 1980s further weakened the country and particularly its rural population.

In the central areas where IFAD-funded operations are ongoing, poor rural people face difficulties posed by inadequate infrastructure, low rainfall, climatic variability, and the fragility of natural resources. Soil erosion and desertification are problems, and plagues of pests are a continuous threat to harvests and livestock. Chad is one of the countries worst affected by desert locusts.

Farmers lack access to agricultural services and to the knowledge and technology they need to improve productivity. The lack of access to rural financial services prevents poor farmers from developing alternative income opportunities and improving productivity.

Source: IFAD