Roundup: Humanitarian needs in Ethiopia triple since beginning of 2015, UN agency says

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday said that humanitarian needs in Ethiopia have tripled since the beginning of 2015 as the drought has led to successive crop failures and widespread livestock deaths, a UN spokesman told reporters here.

"Timely agricultural assistance for the upcoming rainy season is essential to help the drought-affected people of Ethiopia, as one of the strongest El Nino events on record continues to have devastating effects on the lives and livelihoods of farmers and herders," the deputy UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, said at a daily news briefing here.

As a result, there are alarming food insecurity and malnutrition rates in the Horn of Africa country, with some 10.2 million people now food insecure, he said. "One-quarter of all districts in Ethiopia are officially classified as facing a food security and nutrition crisis."

Ethiopia is currently in the midst of its worst drought in 30 years, triggered by this year's record-breaking strong El Nino. For the first time since 1989, failed seasonal rains have led to severely dried out areas in the normally green nation.

With planting for the country's first rainy season, the belg, already delayed and the meher season -- Ethiopia's main agricultural campaign -- fast approaching, farmers need immediate support to help them produce food between now and September for millions facing hunger.

"FAO urgently needs 13 million (U.S.) dollars by the end of March to support more than 600,000 of the worst affected people," said FAO country representative Amadou Allahoury Diallo.

"We're expecting that needs will be particularly high during the next few weeks," he added, "so it's critical that we're able to respond quickly and robustly to reboot agriculture now before the drought further decimates the food security and livelihoods of millions."

The meher produces up to 85 percent of the nation's food supplies.

Recent estimates by Ethiopia's Bureau of Agriculture indicate that some 7.5 million farmers and herders need immediate agricultural support to produce staple crops like maize, sorghum, teff, wheat, and root crops, and livestock feed to keep their animals healthy and resume production.

Farming families have either exhausted seed reserves through successive failed plantings, or have consumed them as food.

Animal feed stocks are also depleted, and support is needed to enable families to produce fodder. 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 the current drought is not just a food crisis -- it is above all a livelihood crisis," said Allahoury Diallo, who highlighted that last year's losses have severely diminished households' food security and purchasing power and forced many to sell their last remaining agricultural assets.

Meeting immediate needs of farmers now is essential to longer-term recovery, as it helps farmers feed their country and keep their productive assets intact.

FAO's call for 13 million U.S. dollars by the end of March is part of the agency's larger 50million dollars appeal for its Ethiopia El Nino Response Plan. But currently less than 10 percent of the plan is funded.

As part of the emergency response, FAO is already providing planting materials to help seed- and food-insecure households in the worst-affected regions plant in the belg and meher seasons. But this support urgently needs to be scaled up.

In an effort to preserve livestock, FAO has been distributing nutrient blocks in pastoral and agropastoral 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. Enditem