WFP ETHIOPIA 2013 Planned Assistance*
Targeted Beneficiaries 7.1 million
Food Requirements 845,758 metric tons
Cost US$ 765.9 million
Shortfall (% of total cost) 73%
See page 4 for break down
*Plans will be adjusted in accordance to the new Humanitarian Requirements Document expected to be released in late January.
Food Security Summary
Food security continues to be stable across the country due to the positive impact of the recent seasonal rains, the provision of humanitarian assistance, and the start of Meher harvest.
Pasture and water availability, as well as livestock conditions and productivity have improved in most parts of the country following the recent rains. Despite this overall improvement, they remain poor to below average in some areas and may not sustain the livestock for more than two months into 2013. Areas now experiencing below normal pasture and water availa-bility are several lowland areas of East and West Harerghe, and Bale zones of Oromia; Dasenech woreda in South Omo Zone; Tselemt, woreda in North Gondar; and isolated pocket areas in central and southern Somali, eastern parts of Tigray; and some areas in Afar. Shortages of these pastoral resources and declines in livestock conditions are expected to continue until the coming Belg/Gu/Genna rains hopefully reverse the situation.
Some of the chronically water insecure woredas of the country have continued to report shortages of water for human consumption. Where shortages of water and pasture are pro-nounced early outmigration of livestock to nearby but relatively better off woredas/zones have already taken place. There is some concern that if concentration of livestock in some pocket areas intensifies, it could result in rapid depletion of pastoral resources in those spots and possibly trigger an outbreak of conflict between host communities and migrants over the scarce resources.
Even though production of long-cycle maize and sorghum, two important staple crops in the country, has significantly dropped mainly due to weather irregularities at the beginning and end of the last Meher rainy season, the overall prospect of the 2012 Meher production looks promising especially in central, western and northwestern parts of the country. This should normally have a positive impact on market supply and prices of staple foods at least in the first three months of 2013. Already, prices of cereals are showing either stability or slight declines in some of the markets. Further declines in food pric-es are normally expected as the harvest season comes to an end and much more grain flows to the markets.
In some areas of the country, harvests will be less than average due to localized damages to crops by hailstorms, floods, wa-ter logging, moisture stresses, frost, crop diseases and pest infestations, Significant decline in crop production is actually expected in some low-lying areas of Eastern, Southern and Southeastern Tigray; several lowland parts and few highland areas of eastern Amhara; A similar poor production is anticipated in the lowland parts of East and West Harerghe, parts of Borena, Bale, Arsi, North Shewa and West Shewa zones of Oromia Region. Crop production in most agro-pastoral and sed-entary farming areas of Somali Region is also not promising. All this is heavily associated with the late start of Belg/Genna/Gu rains at the time of land preparation and planting for long-cycle crops, long dry spells during the season, and early cessa-tion of the Kiremt rains well before some crops attained full maturity.
The HRD for the first half of 2013, which will be based on the findings of the recently concluded multi-sector emergency needs assessment, is now under preparation. The HRD is expected to be released by DRMFSS in early February 2013.