The international community has so far raised some $25 million in donations and pledges for Niger's food crisis and the UN is now confident its $30.7 million target will be met.
But UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, has said the target will soon be increased, reflecting the devastation wrought in Niger by failed rains and a plague of locusts.
Some 3.6 million people - around 28% of the population in the world's second poorest country - are short of food, with tens of thousands of children at risk of starving to death.
Niger's poverty is fuelled by factors like barren soils, poor rain and its landlocked status, rather than the conflict that triggers many African food crises.
International charities say they are trying to avert widespread devastation in Niger and three other drought-hit countries along the southern edge of the Sahara - Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso.
