Impact Assessment Finding of CC on Food Security Set to Release on January

Addis Ababa December 13/2019 Ministry of Agriculture will release impact assessment findings of climate change and related challenges on the agricultural productivity and food security of Ethiopia on mid of January.

The Ministry has undertaken the assessment to identify impacts posed by climate change including drought, untimely rainfall and desert locust infestation on agricultural productivity and food security.

Food Security Coordination Director at the Ministry, Sintayehu Demisie, told ENA that the assessment will be announced on mid of January  

She pointed out that the findings of the assessment will help the ministry to learn the exact impact of climate change and desert locust infestation on productivity and food security of the country.

This will enable the government to take remedial actions in order to curb the possible incidence of food insecurity in the country, she said.

“The Ministry of Agriculture is assessing the situation, and based on our previous experiences we expect that circumstances would have some impact on the food security. So, we will publicize the outcome of our assessment once we have completed,” she indicated.

Disaster Risk Management Technical Working Group (DRM TWG) recently released a report that shows about 8.5 million people in Ethiopia need food aid in 2020.

However, the Director said, the number of the people in need of food aid is yet unknown unless the assessment is fully completed.

“Currently we have the information based on our previous food security assessment outlook, so we are reaching areas with the food insecurity through our backup budget and Safety- Net program,” she noted.

Sintayehu said that about 7.9 million people are regularly supported by the developmental Safety-Net program in all regions except in Benishangul Gumuz and Gambella Regional States though the number is expected to increase after the result of the assessment.

FAO’s report warned that desert locust infestations in Ethiopia may possibly cause serious threat on the agricultural productivity and food security of the country.