Likely food shortages reported as planting season approaches

Unless donors provide additional food aid to Ethiopia, there could be shortages as early as July when the "hungry season" that precedes the November-December harvest starts, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Network (FEWS Net) reported. "Unless new pledges are made, partial cereal shortfalls are almost certain from July onwards, and food aid availability will fall well below 50 percent of requirements by the end of August," FEWS Net said in a report published on Friday. An estimated seven million people are in need of food aid this year, according to the government and United Nations agencies. "Despite coordinated efforts by the Ethiopian government, donors and NGOs to respond to the 2004 food aid needs of 7.1 million people, shortfalls remain," FEWS Net said. It added: "While in some areas food aid distribution so far this year has helped to save lives and protect household resources from further depletion, in other areas inadequate and irregular food aid distributions have failed to prevent malnutrition and in some cases out-migration." The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that farmers preparing to plant in late June were also facing seed shortages. In areas like the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR), the seed shortfall was as high as 80 percent, it added. Aid agencies fear that if farmers do not plant enough seed for the main harvesting season from June to September, millions will again need food aid next year. Donors and the Ethiopian government are looking to supply an estimated 16,000 metric tons of seeds to make up any shortfalls as many families are too poor to buy them. So far, just half the seed needed has been provided, although the time for planting is gradually ebbing away. Hundreds of thousands of farmers around the country are still reeling from a drought in 2002, which left 13.2 million people in need of food aid the following year. Farmers were forced to sell their assets to try and survive the poor harvests that saw production levels in some areas of the country drop by more than a quarter. FEWS also raised concerns about rainfall in the Somali Region, in eastern Ethiopia and said there was "growing pessimism" regarding water and pasture. "Early cessation of the gu rains raises grave concerns for many parts of Somali Region," it said. "Initial optimism about the season, based on unseasonable rain in January, a timely start in March and well distributed rains in April, turned into a growing pessimism recently with the early withdrawal of the rains in May." It added that "stress signs" like early animal migration, crop wilting and the poor condition of livestock at such an early stage were already "an issue of serious concern".