Bumper crop harvest expected next year - Meles

Ethiopians should expect a bumper crop harvest next year due to good rains and an improved use of fertilizers, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has promised. "We are better prepared than ever to make good use of the good rains we now have and we have imported more fertilizer then ever [...] and the regional extensions [systems that] provide technical assistance are better organised," Meles told reporters in the capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday. "We expect a bumper crop next year and that should work well for our overall economic growth." The prime minister’s statement comes in contrast to an alert earlier this month from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which warned of possible food shortages in the eastern Somali due to the main rainy season in the region ending early. The May rains in region had been below average, OCHA said, and prospects for food security and general environmental improvement during the upcoming dry season were not promising "The overall food security situation, which is below normal in most woredas [districts] of 'deyr' zones, is expected to decline as the 'hagaa' [dry] season progresses," OCHA warned. "Lack or failure of seasonal crop production in the central and southern agro-pastoral areas is also contributing to increased household vulnerability in the region." The Ethiopian Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency was continuing to dispatch relief to drought-affected areas. According to the UN, at least 1.7 million Ethiopians in the eastern Somali Region and in the southern Borena Zone are struggling to survive with limited access to water and food.