FAO launch US $4.3-million scheme to tackle drought.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has announced a US $4.3-million package for drought-stricken farmers in Ethiopia. The funds, for some 2.3 million people, will help rural communities prepare land for the next planting season after widespread and devastating crop failures, the FAO said on Tuesday. According to an FAO statement, years of drought, especially in the south, had withered crops and left many farming households destitute and unable to feed themselves. The FAO also warned that Ethiopia was witnessing "pre-famine conditions", with thousands of children facing malnutrition, and animals dying due to lack of water. "Traditionally these people cope with drought either by growing crops which can be harvested sooner or by migrating," the FAO emergency officer, Yon Fernandez de Larrinoa, said. "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." The FAO projects include supplying seeds, feed, equipment, animal health services, farming expertise and training in water management to boost the agriculture sector. Agriculture is vital to the Ethiopian economy and accounts for around half of the country’s earnings. Farming families depend upon livestock to till the soil and collect the harvest, while pastoralists derive most of their livelihood from animal production. In 2002, Ethiopia produced 25 percent less cereals and pulses than the previous year. "The country's recent border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea, a growing population, fractured road infrastructure and poor land-management practices exacerbate difficult climatic conditions, leaving the country at constant risk of slipping into crisis each time the rains fail," the FAO said. Aid agencies say some areas in the southern lowlands are experiencing what is known as a 'green famine', where recent rains have created a lush landscape which masks severe hunger. People who have already been weakened by years of drought and crop failure are now going hungry as they wait for newly-planted crops to grow.