Ethiopia Calls for Donation of $20 Million to Feed the Hungry

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(Mulu G)

The Ethiopian Ministry of Farming is calling for a donation of $20 million USD to feed those severely affected by hunger. In a press conference held on November 24, 2010, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister d’Etat Mitiku Kassa announced that the number of people requiring food assistance has decreased to 2.3 million.

The minister apologized for failing to collect sufficient data from the Amhara and other regions, and revealed that 29.2% of those requiring food aid are from the Somali region, with an additional 29% coming from the Tigray region. The Oromiya region reportedly contributes 26.3% of the people requiring food aid.

The minister d’état also noted that there has been sufficient rainfall in recent years, which has made the land increasingly suitable for farming. This, he said, increased harvests and decreased the number of people reliant on food donations.  Yet sources within the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development  Disaster Response Directorate indicate that, contrary to what is being reported by the ministry, the overall number of beneficiaries in the safety-net “Food for Work” program has rather increased by 300,000 this year.

According to these sources, the number of people included in the Food for Work project increased from 7.5 to 7.8 million people.  Sources suggest that the reason for this rise in number is because regions formerly excluded from the program, like Afar and Somali, are now facing severe food shortages.

“Many are in need of immediate food provisions every year,” say the sources. The sources also disclose that, according to a survey conducted earlier this year, there are 5.2 million people who are in need of daily food support.

Rainfall during the 2002/2003 Ethiopian year was relatively high in the areas affected by severe food shortages, Yet the government’s rosy conclusions are premature.  The projected figure of 2.3 million people in need of food aid is  wildly exaggerated at best, since data from several regions has yet to be collected.

Since1993 a national disaster prevention and preparedness policy has been in effect with the aim of reducing the number of deaths due to natural and man made disasters. Found ineffective, it was restructured under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development  in 2007.