ETHIOPIA-FOOD: Starvation Threat Despite Bumper Harvest

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Apr 19 1996 (IPS) - A new threat of famine is looming in the north of Ethiopia, where up to a million people died of starvation between 1984 and 1985.

The situation is acute particularly in the food-deficit parts of Tigray, Wollo, Wolayita and Hararge where some two to three million people face food shortages this year, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

The WFP, along with the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said Ethiopia had enough food nationwide but could not make it available to its vulnerable groups.

“Ethiopia is in the unique position of being largely self- sufficient in food at the national level, with food surpluses in the main producing areas,” the WFP said on Friday.

The problem is farmers in Tigray, Wollo, Wolayita and Hararge have limited access to cultivatable land. Most are too poor to buy enough food for their families from the market, and cannot afford to buy farm equipment which would boost their agricultural productivity.

Furthermore localised crop failures and concentrations of displaced persons have aggravated the problem. “Even in good years like 1996 where Ethiopia produced food surpluses in the main producing areas, many households can only cover 70 percent of their food requirements using their own resources,” said WFP.

As a result, an emergency operation by the agency, valued at 10.4 million dollars, will be aimed at providing relief to 550,000 people or 18 percent of the most vulnerable in Ethiopia whom the agency anticipates will be short of food for four months of this year.

Due to the good 1995 harvest, WFP is requesting donors to provide cash donations in order to purchase the entire cereal requirements of 30,000 metric tonnes from Ethiopia’s available food surpluses of wheat and maize. WFP also requires 1,080 tonnes of vegetable oil.

“This year we need to take a different approach to relief food assistance in Ethiopia,” said Allen Jones, WFP’s Country Director for Ethiopia. “Good national food supplies give us the opportunity to help break the country’s food aid dependency cycle.”

In accordance with the Ethiopian government’s National Policy on Disaster Prevention and Management, free food will only be given to a restricted number of vulnerable groups, while able- bodied people who require relief food, will be encouraged to participate in employment generating schemes (EGS) such as water supply development, road maintenance and other projects which the communities themselves identify as priorities.

Almost 70 percent of the food assistance provided by WFP will be distributed through EGS programmes.

In Ethiopia, poverty and hunger are commonplace. Per capita income is estimated at 110 dollars, one of the lowest in the world. More than 25 million of Ethiopia’s 1995 population of 56.4 million are estimated to live below the poverty line.

The government however is trying to use food aid to achieve more than the relief of hunger. EGS programmes are seen as an investment contributing to the rehabilitation and development of the country.

Neighbouring Sudan is another cause of concern for WFP. It is asking donors for 40.3 million dollars to help some 4.5 starving people in the country. Deliveries to civil war-wracked southern Sudan during 1996 are projected to reach more than 61,000 metric tonnes. With WFP carry-over food stocks from 1995, as well as NGO resources, WFP needs 27,450 tonnes of food for this year.

In 1995, many rehabilitative projects were curtailed by a lack of donor funding. U.N. agencies received only 39 percent of funds required for emergency activities in Sudan, most of which came late in the year, seriously compromising the U.N.’s ability to respond to the growing humanitarian crisis, according to WFP.

Relief assistance to southern Sudan is delivered by air and road cross-border from Kenya and Uganda, and by river, rail and air from northern Sudan. Poor and dangerous roads in the south — liable to rebel ambush — means that, for the most part, relief agencies must resort to costly air transport.

The threat of starvation this year affects several countries in Africa including Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Somalia, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Jacques Diouf, FAO director-general, said in February that “in Africa, the number of chronically undernourished people is projected to swell by about 50 percent to more than 300 million people by 2010. This the world can simply not allow, or afford.”

He expects the proposed FAO heads of state food summit in Rome, Italy, in November to address some of the problems.

“World food production will have to increase by more than 75 percent over the next 30 years to keep pace with population growth. We must prepare now to feed about 9 billion people who will inhabit the world by 2030; that is up from 5.8 billion people today,” said Diouf.