of Lake Chad supported a well-watered savanna, which contributed to a lesser level of aridity in the Sahel area. It was found that around 3,000 B.C., the Sahel averaged 650 millimetres of rainfall a year compared to an average of 350 millimetres recorded today. Given the issue of desertification, even if Lake Chad was not directly a cause of the famine, its potential demise is expected to further aggravate the problem. There are studies that show that the incidence of famine is reportedly related to the delicate seasonal variations in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The shrinking of Lake Chad is blamed on the long droughts as well as the uptick in human activities such as the use of the lake's water for irrigation, the destruction of wooded areas for firewood, and the shift from the cultivation of corn and wheat to rice as the staple crop. The Ubangi River diversion proposal In the 1960s, a plan was proposed to divert the Ubangi River into Lake Chad. The copious amount of water from the Ubangi would revitalise the dying Lake Chad and provide livelihood in fishing and enhanced agriculture to tens of millions of central Africans and Sahelians. Inter-basin water transfer schemes were proposed in the 1980s and 1990s by Nigerian engineer J. Umolu (ZCN Scheme) and Italian firm Bonifica (Transaqua Scheme). In 1994, the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) proposed a similar project and at a March 2008 Summit, the Heads of State of the LCBC member countries committed to the diversion project. In April 2008, the LCBC advertised a request for proposals for a World Bank-funded feasibility study. The possible effects of cash crops Cotton and groundnuts are two of Chad's four major cash crops. Mali's major cash crops are peanuts and cotton. Mali's cotton production has grown from 500,000 tonnes in 1997 to a record 635,000 tonnes in 2003, which has pleased the African Association of Cotton Producers, but has also led to a claim that cash crops are being put before food and fodder crops in Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad. Cassava production has fallen slightly in Burkina Faso since 2007, relative to cotton output. Their cash crops are cotton, groundnuts, shea nuts, and sesame. The Sahel's farmers are largely cleared of blame for the 20th century's Sahel droughts and this is supported by the position that several of the cash crops in the Sahel region