Over 8 000 farmers to benefit from emergency seed support

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a partnership agreement of 330 000 USD to provide emergency seed support to smallholder farmers affected by the El Nino induced drought in Amhara and Oromia Regional States of Ethiopia.

“This assistance addresses one of the most critical and urgent issues of El Nino response,” said Mr. Amadou Allahoury, FAO Representation in Ethiopia. “All our effort is to reach out to farmers for meher cropping season that accounts for 80 percent of the national crop harvest. This emergency seed assistance will contribute to sustaining crop production, which is highly essential to improving household food security and increasing the availability of nutritious food, and to restoring not only food supplies, but also income.”

On his part, Mr. Kimiaki JIN, Chief Representative of JICA in Ethiopia, said “Even though JICA is mainly engaged in development activities, addressing the problem of farmers due to El Nino is also in line with its strategic mission. Therefore, JICA decided to redirect its development budget to support El Nino affected farmers in Ethiopia”.

At national level, 5.6 million farmers and agro-pastoralists need emergency seed support, which requires US$15 million of funding. FAO targeted to reach out to 100 000 farmers with short-cycle crops and vegetable seeds to ensure timely planting for meher season, which expects adequate rainfall according to the forecast by the National Meteorological Agency.