More than two million people in need of food aid - FAO

An estimated 2.3 million Eritreans are in need of food aid following prolonged drought and delayed rainfall that resulted in inadequate harvest, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday. The agency said those affected by the shortfall would need more than a quarter of a million mt of food this year to supplement their meagre harvest. Cereal production late last year was forecasted at about 85 mt, less than half of the average of the last 12 years. Another 80 mt was to be purchased and 80 mt donated, leaving the need at 262,000 mt, according to FAO. Failure of the March to May Azmera rains, during which farmers prepare the land and the unusually short June to September Kremti growth rains, not only reduced cereal production, but forced pastoralists to move their herds early. This could result in shortages of animal feed early this year. FAO called for short-cycle cereal seed varieties to be provided, in case this year's weather follows the pattern of the last several years. Since the end of the 1998-2000 Ethiopia-Eritrea war, Eritrea has suffered from successive droughts, with harvests hit particularly hard in the main grain-producing regions of Gash, Barka and Debub. The destruction during the war, the current stalemate in the peace process, along with the cumulative effects of drought have dealt a serious blow to the economy, reducing Eritrea's capacity to cover food requirements through imports. On 23 November 2004, relief agencies jointly appealed for nearly US $157.2 million to fund humanitarian activities in Eritrea in 2005, saying the country had continued to endure the aftermath of war. The consequences of war included destroyed homes, mined villages, shattered livelihoods, hunger and malnutrition, the agencies said in their Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal launched in the capital, Asmara. According to the appeal, donor response to what was asked for, especially in critical non-food requirements, had declined from 57 percent in 2003 to 38 percent in 2004, despite the continuing need for help. In 2004, of the 1.9 million vulnerable persons who required food aid, only 1.3 million received it, according to the appeal statement.