News: Amhara region cultivates over 4,500 hectares in drive for humanitarian independence amid soaring demands

Addis Abeba – In alignment with the federal government’s initiative, which mandates regional states to independently cover at least 70% of their humanitarian needs, the Amhara Agricultural Bureau has announced the commencement of cultivating over 4,500 hectares of land with grains such as teff, wheat, and maize.

Abeje Seneshaw, the deputy head of the Amhara Agricultural Bureau, recently disclosed to state media that the objective is to cultivate crops for reserve grain storage on 36,000 hectares of land.

According to him, over 27,700 hectares of land have already been identified for this purpose. “To date, 4,695 hectares of land have been cultivated and sown with corn, teff, wheat, sorghum, barley, and rice,” he stated.

Abeje further reported that 1,914 quintals of fertilizer and 1,154 quintals of improved seeds are being utilized for the cultivation of the land.

He also noted that the land cultivation is primarily being carried out by state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which operate under the supervision of the regional administration.

The federal government has been actively promoting the initiative requiring regional states to cover at least 70% of their humanitarian needs, particularly following the endorsement of the national Disaster Risk Management (DRM) policy by the Council of Ministers in late February 2024.

The latest initiative by the federal government seeks to achieve regional self-sufficiency in addressing humanitarian needs by enabling regional states to cultivate and produce grains using their own resources, thereby supporting citizens during times of displacement or drought.

This initiative is being implemented at a critical juncture, as the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the country is rapidly increasing.

Recently, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revealed that 15.8 million people in Ethiopia require food assistance.

The UN agency warns that populations residing primarily in the northeastern Amhara, western Afar, and Tigray regions are at an elevated risk of experiencing severe food insecurity, reaching or surpassing crisis levels. Despite planned food assistance initiatives, the report indicates that the scale of the humanitarian need is likely to outpace the capacity of current interventions.

Recent reports by Addis Standard also indicate that drought and conflict have had a devastating impact on a significant portion of the Amhara region, resulting in the displacement of millions of individuals and their reliance on humanitarian food aid.

In May 2024, Tesfaw Batable, the head of the Amhara Disaster Prevention and Food Security Program Coordinating Commission, disclosed that the ongoing drought and security challenges within the region have led to an urgent need for assistance from over 2.5 million people.

The June 2024 report indicates that malnutrition rates in specific regions, such as Amhara, have surpassed critical thresholds. It also reveals that a significant number of children have succumbed to medical complications and severe malnutrition.

According to the report, the proportion of severely malnourished children with complications had reached 10.3% as of March 2024, an increase from the 9.4% recorded during the same period last year.

The rise in malnutrition rates can be attributed, in part, to Ethiopia’s ongoing struggle to address the escalating humanitarian needs, which have significantly strained government resources.

In February 2024, a humanitarian response plan valued at US$3.2 billion was established to provide critical aid to millions of Ethiopians facing severe crises. However, as of April 23, the UN reported that only $287 million had been funded.

In an effort to mitigate the financial shortfall and enhance the delivery of aid and food assistance, some regions have also begun taking more concrete steps to implement the initiative of self-sufficiency, covering at least 70% of their humanitarian needs.

In a recent interview with Addis Standard, Moges Edaie, head of Busa Gonofa Oromia (Oromia Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission), noted that the Oromia region had been pursuing this approach by mobilizing resources to achieve the objective.

Moges indicated that one of the major strategies to attain this goal involves acquiring farmland within the region and producing the necessary food items.

“Based on the directives provided by the federal government, the required amount of land to be cultivated has been allocated,” he disclosed.

Moges also revealed that the Oromia region plans to construct warehouses across its 21 zones to store agricultural products.

“This is to enable the region to provide support to the population by utilizing these stocks in times of need,” he explained. AS