Funding shortages mean food aid is in short supply and malnutrition
will increase dramatically if donor money runs out in May, the United
Nations has said.
A
general view shows a bridge constructed across a dried up river in
Ethiopia's northern Amhara region. Picture taken February 11, 2016.
Millions of Ethiopians,
hit by the country's worst drought in 50 years, need seeds to plant
food crops and animal fodder during the current spring rains, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said on Monday.
Planting
for the March to May rains, known as the belg, is already delayed, it
said, as families have eaten their seeds or exhausted them through
successive failed plantings.
"FAO urgently needs $13 million by the end of March to support more than 600,000 of the worst affected people," FAO's country representative Amadou Allahoury Diallo said.
"It's
critical that we're able to respond quickly and robustly to reboot
agriculture now before the drought further decimates the food security
and livelihoods of millions."
Some 7.5
million farmers and herders need aid to produce maize, sorghum, teff and
wheat, as well as livestock feed, according to Ethiopia's Bureau of
Agriculture, it said.
Farmers need seeds not just
for the current rains but also for the summer meher rains, which are due
to start in June and produce 85 per cent of Ethiopia's food supplies.
The hunger crisis is predicted to worsen until the harvest begins in September.
Ethiopia's
government and the United Nations have asked for $1.4 billion to feed
10.2 million Ethiopians - the third largest appeal globally after Syria
and Yemen.
An additional 7.9 million chronically
food insecure people are receiving rations through the Ethiopian
government's donor-supported Productive Safety Net Programme.
Funding
shortages mean food aid is in short supply and malnutrition will
increase dramatically if donor money runs out in May, the United Nations
has said.
Some 435,000 children are expected to
become severely malnourished in 2016, which means they risk death
without therapeutic treatment.
Cows and goats are a critical source of milk for hungry families, but many have stopped producing it.
Hundreds of thousands of livestock have already died and the remaining animals are becoming weak and thin, FAO said.
FAO is buying weak sheep and goats for slaughter and providing their meat to hungry families.
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