NIAMEY, March 16 (Reuters) - At least 1.1 million people in Niger are at risk from food shortages this year and 400,000 people in the impoverished West African state will need aid, experts said. The first annual gathering of Niger's National Committee For the Prevention and Management of Food Crises, which includes local officials and representatives of international aid organisations, concluded that 178 communities were at risk during this year's "lean season" between harvests, state television reported late on Thursday. Located in Africa's arid Sahel belt just south of the Sahara, the majority of Niger's 13 million people live on less than a dollar a day. Seasonal food shortages affect hundreds of thousands of people each year. The meeting called for greater cooperation between agencies and better research on food shortages to avoid a repetition of the 2005 food crisis which took the world by surprise. An estimated 3.6 million people were left short of food in 2005, including 800,000 children suffering from malnutrition.
