FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 09/98 - ETHIOPIA* (3 September)
Abundant rains in July and August benefited developing crops of the 1998 main “Meher” season, particularly in parts of Ahmara, Tigray and eastern Oromiya where precipitation had been insufficient. Overall prospects for the harvest from late October are favourable.
Latest official estimates of the secondary 1998 SBelg” foodcrops indicate an output 45 percent higher than last year’s reduced production, but lower than the bumper crop of 1996. While a record harvest was obtained in the important growing Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, the outcome was sharply reduced in the Belg-dependent areas of the northern highlands, mainly South Tigray, parts of North Wello, North Shewa and Northwest Shewa. The food situation in these areas, previously affected by a reduced 1997 Meher production, gives cause for concern.
As a result of the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict, the Government's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) has appealed for food and non- food assistance for the affected population. Emergency food assistance for 168 000 displaced people in Tigray region and 20 000 in Afar region, amounting to 5 000 tonnes of cereals, is being provided.
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