UN agency launches emergency campaign to help drought-hit Ethiopian farmers

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched an emergency campaign to help farmers in Ethiopia, where years of acute drought have withered crops, leaving farming households unable to feed themselves and large numbers of children suffering from malnutrition, the agency said today.

“Traditionally these people cope with drought either by growing crops which can be harvested sooner or by migrating,” FAO official Yon Fernandez de Larrinoa said in a news release on the agency’s projects in Ethiopia, which include supplying seeds, feed, equipment, animal health services, farming expertise and training in water management.

“But the situation is now so grave, all means of dealing with drought have been exhausted. The already malnourished people are simply eating even less or relying on food aid,” he added.

An estimated 12.6 million Ethiopians are now in need of food aid and pre-famine conditions are now reported in parts of the country, especially the south.

FAO’s emergency projects, worth some $4.3 million, aim to help farmers cope with the crisis now and manage better in the future in the East African country, where animals are dying due to lack of water and feed after repeated failed harvests. They reach 2.3 million vulnerable Ethiopians, a total of 450 000 households.