People in Papua New Guinea have planted additional gardens to counter a weaker than expected harvest.
Much of the Highlands, along with other parts of PNG, suffered badly from eight months of severe drought brought by EL Nino from the second half of last year.
CARE International is one of the agencies that has been distributing rice to supplement people's diets until the harvest of kaukau or sweet potato, comes through.
Its emergency response coordinator in PNG, Blossom Gilmour, said the harvest could have been better.
"People did see early on that their crop was not coming through so they planted in more than one location. So they're starting to harvest now but that harvest will start to peak in another month or two depending on their elevation levels. It's not optimal yet, it's not quite back to normal yet, but it is improving."
Ms Gilmour said about 50,000 people are still waiting for rice to be distributed.