FAO programme for emergency and smooth recovery assistance to drought affected farmers in Ethiopia

FAO’s programme used the fund in an integrated approach for the purpose of emergency and rapid recovery of the livelihoods of crop producing farmers. The major focus of the intervention was on emergency cereal and pulse seed supply. This part of the program were complemented with other emergency and recovery activities in the crop sector, such as supply of seeds and planting materials of strategic root crops, fruits, and vegetables, in areas where these are traditional crops, and in areas where cereal seed production can no longer sustain a farming family because of overpopulation, land degradation, and other issues.

The overall objective of the project was to restore the agricultural productivity of drought-affected  farmers in 16 woredas, 1 in Amhara, 14 in Tigray and 10 in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) through: (i) the emergency provision of seeds; (ii) promoting horticultural activities; (iii) rehabilitating small-scale irrigation; and (iv) establishing an emergency agriculture task force. 

The assistance focuses on 3 regions: Tigray, Amhara, and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR). Oromiya is not included because several other initiatives are already ongoing there.

The expected outputs of the project were in line with the general objective of the Government of Ethiopia as expressed in the 2004 Emergency Appeal, i.e. improvement of seed (and consequently food) security of drought-affected farming households.

The project expected to achieve:

• increased food crop production;
• increased and diversified household food supplies and improved nutrition;
• reduced dependency on external food aid;
• strengthened household and local seed system; and
• improved technical capacity at regional and woreda level.

Main components include:

• Seed component: sixteen woredas in Amhara, 14 in Tigray and 10 in SNNPR were selected as project sites. The funds for purchasing seed and covering operational expenses were disbursed to each woreda’s designated accounts in a timely manner: beneficiaries in the three regions received 22 745 quintals of grain. The project distributed seed to 86 985 households in 40 woredas, allowing most households to sow a quarter of a hectare of land. The project donated 30 kg of vegetable seeds to UNHCR in June 2005 to promote gardening in two refugee camps.
• Horticulture component: twenty government fruit nurseries in Tigray and SNNPR were provided with good quality fruit seedlings, partly sourced from abroad in order to establish mother orchards at the nursery level, enabling a steady supply of good quality planting material for grafting purposes. The idea of promoting school gardening in Tigray was based on using schools as an entry point to promote fruit and vegetable production in the community at large through their children in school.
• Rehabilitation of irrigation schemes: the objective of the intervention was to revitalize the damaged irrigation systems and improve irrigation practices in order to enable the beneficiaries to produce food and cash crops and increase their food security.