Food shortage in Ethiopia could be history soon: official

Ethiopia said Thursday food shortage in the Horn of Africa country could be resolved within a short period of time.

Simon Mechale, director general of the Federal Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency, said food insecurity would be a history in Ethiopia soon owing to the sound policies and strategies of the incumbent Ethiopian government, and the continued development-driven assistance of international donor agencies.

He made the observation while briefing Australian Senator Steve Fielding on the activities of the agency geared toward ensuring food security in Ethiopia.

Simon said Ethiopia's ongoing development activities and economic growth over the last three successive years clearly indicated that Ethiopia could attain food self-sufficiency within a short period of time.

Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest countries, saw an annual economic growth of seven percent in the past three years.

Though provision of humanitarian assistance has a crucial role to save the lives of people exposed to man-made and natural calamities, donor agencies should attach due attention to the provision of development assistance to Ethiopia in a bid to enable the country reduce poverty and attain food self-sufficiency in a sustainable manner.

Actually, encouraging results have been observed in ensuring food self-sufficiency among farmers who take part in various development activities through the safety-net program, he said.

The safety-net program mainly aims at ensuring food self- sufficiency among farmers through sustainable community development activities in various parts of the country.

The five-year program, which will be carried out in 262 food- deficit woredas (districts) of the country, has a 1.35 billion birr (156 million U.S. dollars) budget every year.

Senator Fielding, who is here on a working visit, said on his part that he has got first-hand information about the way provision of humanitarian assistance is being utilized in Ethiopia and about the ongoing national efforts geared toward reducing poverty across the nation.

Fielding also said he would confer with the Australian government on the prevailing situation in Ethiopia and would do his level best in improving the quality and quantity of humanitarian and development assistance from that country to Ethiopia.

Because of its degraded lands, poor cultivation practices, and frequent periods of drought, Ethiopia is chronically unable to feed its population and has to rely on massive foreign aid.

Source: Xinhua