View previous stories
	We need to give people affected by the drought the chance to rebuild their lives by Food & Agriculture Organization & agencies Horn of Africa   Aug 9, 2011   UN fears dramatic rise in Somalia famine refugees. (AP)   The United Nations estimates that tens of thousands of people have died from malnutrition in Somalia in recent months, and over 13 million people across East Africa need food aid because of a long-running devastating drought.   Already hundreds of thousands have fled toward the Somali capital of Mogadishu and across the borders to Kenya and Ethiopia, where refugee camps are straining under the pressure of new arrivals.   The Food & Agriculture Organization has been working to prevent Somalis from abandoning their drought-hit farms by paying them cash for small jobs, thus allowing people to remain.   The World Health Organization, meanwhile, warned that diseases such as measles and cholera are circulating among Somali refugees, many of whom are too weak to survive the diseases.   Aug 2011   United Nations agencies are moving to counter the worsening food crisis in the Horn of Africa, with an immediate infusion of food in an area where 640,000 children alone are threatened with acute malnutrition, and longer-term steps to spark an agricultural recovery.   “It is vital that we not only save lives today but also save the livelihoods on which people"s lives depend tomorrow,” says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The World Food Programme (WFP) has provided aid to nearly 8 million people in the region in the past five weeks and is targeting 11.5 million out of more than 13 million people affected by the drought and famine.   WFP is airlifting into Mombasa, Kenya, tons of high-energy biscuits (HEBs), enough to feed 1.6 million people for a day. The biscuits are being pre-positioned for onward delivery to vulnerable people throughout the region, where Somalis are seeking relief in overcrowded refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, both of which have also been affected by the crisis.   WFP is aiming to deliver fortified food to fight acute childhood malnutrition to Somalia, with enough to feed more than 30,000 malnourished children under age five for a month.   Looking beyond the immediate crisis of saving the lives of the acutely malnourished, many of them children under five, the FAO is seeking funds to spark a short-term agricultural recovery, such as cash for work for agricultural and water harvesting, seed distribution, vaccination and animal feeding, irrigation and food storage.   These actions will transition into support to governments’ medium- to long-term plans, building resilience over the long haul. The agency has asked for funding to save the lives and livelihoods of millions of farmers and pastoralists across the drought-struck region.   “When you see the sheer numbers of animal dead bodies along the road you know that this means that people have less capacity to buy their food today and tomorrow,” Cristina Amaral, Chief of Operations in FAO’s Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division said. “FAO is concerned that support to incomes and safeguarding people’s assets has so far been largely overlooked and this will make recovery slower.”   Meanwhile the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has flown into beleaguered Mogadishu, with emergency aid for scores of thousands of displaced people, including 31 tons of shelter material such as plastic sheeting for shelter, sleeping mats and blankets, jerry cans and kitchen utensils.   UNHCR has been shipping its relief items to Mogadishu by sea and by land but, due to the dramatic rise in the number of those uprooted by famine and conflict in recent weeks. An estimated 100,000 Somalis have fled to Mogadishu over the past two months, joining more than 370,000 displaced people already there.   Like FAO, the agency is also facing a serious funding shortfall for of identified needs for Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.   “We need the funding support to continue to enable us to replenish our emergency stocks inside Somalia as they are being rapidly depleted as we deliver much-needed aid across southern Somalia,” said UNHCR Representative to Somalia Bruno Geddo.   UNHCR, UNICEF and other agencies are also providing emergency assistance in the far larger Dadaab camp complex in Kenya, whose mainly Somali population has swelled to nearly 400,000 in recent months, including 40,000 arrivals in the past month alone.   In Geneva, UN World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Tarek Jasarevic warned of the high risk of disease due to the lack of potable water, the living conditions in overcrowded camps and malnutrition.   "We must avert a human tragedy of vast proportions. And much as food assistance is needed now, we also have to scale up investments in sustainable immediate and medium-term interventions that help farmers and their families to protect their assets and continue to produce food", said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.   A rare combination of conflict and insecurity, limited access for humanitarian organizations, successive harvest failures and a lack of food assistance has jeopardized an entire population in southern Somalia. The country has suffered war on and off since 1991.   FAO has been helping Somali farmers and herders with farm inputs and livestock health services. But drought due to successive poor rain seasons has curtailed food production and wiped out livestock assets.   "We need to immediately support farmers with seeds, tools and access to water and herders with fodder and emergency treatment to avoid further displacement and starvation".   The current crisis affects the whole Horn of Africa region including the northern part of Kenya and southern parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Karamoja Region of Uganda where large areas are classified as in a state of humanitarian emergency.   "We need to not lose sight that there is a tiny window of opportunity to prevent massive deaths and destitution," said Rod Charters, FAO Regional Emergency Coordinator for Eastern Africa.   "Currently in the neighboring countries of Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, 7.9 million people are in need of urgent emergency assistance. Support through agriculture and livestock not only provides essential food but an income for families and we need to give people affected by the drought the chance to rebuild their lives," he added. Visit the related web page
	African land grabs threaten food security by Worldwatch Institute & agencies   "Land grabs" hurt Africa"s ability to feed itself-study, by Christine Stebbins.   Rich countries grabbing farmland in Africa to feed their growing populations can leave rural populations there without land or jobs and make the continent"s hunger problem more severe.   The trend is accelerating as wealthier countries in the Middle East and Asia, particularly China, seek new land to plant crops, lacking enough fertile ground to meet their own food needs, Washington DC-based Worldwatch Institute said.   Worldwatch said its researchers interviewed more than 350 farmers groups, NGOs, government agencies and scientists over 17 months. The meetings, held in 25 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, addressed issues that hinder the efforts of African farmers to alleviate hunger and poverty.   "People are always saying that Africa needs to feed itself. It can"t do that if the Chinese and the Saudis are taking up the best land for production for food," Danielle Nierenberg, director of Worldwatch"s Nourishing the Planet project, told Reuters.   The International Food Policy Research Institute reports that 15 million to 20 million hectares of land in sub-Saharan Africa have been purchased by foreign investors between 2006 and mid-2009.   "There are millions more hectares that are being sold by governments that have not been documented," Nierenberg added.   In many cases, farmers whose families may have tilled the land for years are unaware the land -- owned by the government or a community-shared plot -- has been sold.   Investors claim such land deals can help alleviate the world food crisis by tapping into a country"s "unused" agricultural potential and providing poor countries with money and infrastructure developments.   The International Institute for Economic Development, World Bank, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and International Fund for Agricultural Development have issued studies on the economic possibilities of international land deals.   "If all governments capably represented the interests of their citizens, these cash-for-cropland deals might improve prosperity and food security for both sides," Robert Engelman, Worldwatch executive director, said in statement.   "But that"s not often the case. It"s critical that international institutions monitor these arrangements and find ways to block those that are one-sided or benefit only the wealthy," he said.   While Worldwatch encourages more international guidance in land deals, it said African governments themselves must be aware of the long-term impact of land grabs.   "Strengthening the role that African governments" play and making sure they are not selling off their land and undermining their own farming system is important, and that will go well beyond any international regulations," Nierenberg said. Visit the related web page
	View more stories