Gov’t agency warns of major food shortages

A government agency on Tuesday warned of major food shortages with as many as 12 million people facing hunger in 2005. The government’s emergency arm, the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC), said malnutrition was apparent in many parts of the country. "There is cause for concern," DPPC spokesman Sisay Tadesse told IRIN. "The international community is going to need to provide support," he said. Poor rains and a gradual erosion of the assets of subsistence farmers have fuelled a crisis that is expected to hit the country by the end of the year, according to relief agencies. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a report released at the weekend that just under eight million people are currently dependent on food aid. "In Ethiopia, the overall food supply situation remains highly precarious," said the FAO in its Food-crops and Shortages report for October and released on Sunday. "The main producing regions in western and central parts of the country are expected to have an average crop while the eastern crop producing and agro-pastoral areas are facing serious problems due to late and erratic seasonal rains coupled with inadequate seeds supplies," the FAO report noted. FAO said 35 countries around the world, including 23 states in Africa, were facing food shortages. It added that Ethiopia faced an "unfavourable prospects" for crops this year. In 2002 Ethiopia was hit by a serious crisis that left 14 million people dependent on food handouts. The aid effort was one of the largest ever undertaken in Africa, according to the UN when 1.8 million mt of food was shipped into the country. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), which is funded by the US government’s development arm, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), also warned a food crisis. "Results of the government-led contingency planning process warn of potential famine," it said in a special report on the emergency in Ethiopia released earlier this month. It said poor rains and "increasing livelihood degradation" had led to a worsening situation in the country, which only recently emerged from the 2002 crisis. Ethiopia – with a population of 70 million people - is one of the poorest countries in the world with an average annual per capita income of just US $100. Some 56 million people, who eke out a hand-to-mouth existence on tiny plots of land in rural areas, are entirely dependent on rain for their harvest. Sisay said that the exact scale of needs would be established after a harvest assessment led by the DPPC that is due to start this week releases its results. The government is expected to then appeal to the international community for support on 15 December. "This assessment will alert the international community to what is happening on the ground," he added from the DPPC headquarters in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia currently has food stocks of around 260,000 mt of food, according to the DPPC. But it said up to 1.2 million mt of food might be needed to tackle hunger. The DPPC’s Food Supply Prospects Based on Different Types of Scenarios in 2005 said that between nine and 12.6 million people could be dependent on foreign food aid next year. About five million of those fall into the chronically food insecure, the DPPC added.