Rome – Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Country Representative, Amadou-Allahoury Diallo, said the organisation urgently need 13 million U.S. dollars by the end of March to support more than 600,000 of the worst affected people in Ethiopia.
He said on Monday in Italy that call for the money by the end of March was part of the agency’s larger 50 million U.S. dollars appeal for its Ethiopia El Niño Response Plan.
According to him, currently less than 10 per cent of the plan is funded.
Diallo said the recent estimates by Ethiopia’s Bureau of Agriculture has indicated that some 7.5 million farmers and herders need immediate agricultural support to produce staple crops and livestock feed to keep their animals healthy and resume production.
“We’re expecting that needs will be particularly high during the next few weeks.
“So it’s critical that we’re able to respond quickly to reboot agriculture now before the drought further decimates the food security and livelihoods of millions,’’ he said.
He said getting the financial assistance has become imperative because all the farming families had either exhausted seed reserves through successive failed plantings, or had consumed them as food.
Diallo also noted that animal feed stocks are also depleted, and that support is needed to enable families to produce fodder.
He said hundreds of thousands of livestock have already died and the animals that remain are becoming weaker and thinner due to poor grazing resources, feed shortages and limited water availability, leading to sharp declines in milk and meat production.
“It’s important to understand that the current drought is not just food crisis, it is above all a livelihood crisis.
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“Last year’s losses had severely diminished households’ food security and purchasing power and forced many to sell their last remaining agricultural assets,’’ he said.
The Representative noted that meeting immediate needs of farmers now was essential to longer-term recovery, as it helped farmers feed their country and keep their productive assets intact.
Diallo said as part of FAO emergency response, it was already providing planting materials to help seed- and food-insecure households in the worst-affected regions plant in the belg and meher seasons.
The official stressed that the support urgently needs to be scaled up.
He said in an effort to preserve livestock, FAO has been distributing nutrient blocks in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas meant to strengthen livestock and bolster the resilience of the cooperatives that produce them.
“FAO is also providing survival animal feed and support to help farmers produce fodder and improve access to water for livestock.
“Herds across the country have also benefited from vaccination and treatment campaigns to address their increasing vulnerability as a result of drought,’’ he said.
He added that in Ethiopia’s Somali Region, FAO was enhancing the financial stability of drought-affected households through the purchase of weak sheep and goats for immediate, local slaughter.
“It is also providing the meat rich in protein to nutritionally vulnerable drought-affected families.
Diallo said the intervention would help reduce stress on available feed, enable households to focus their resources on their remaining productive animals, and invest in productive assets.
He said FAO in addition was closely working with the government to conduct seasonal assessments and develop preparedness and response plans, along with guidelines for emergency agriculture support. (PANA/NAN)