The situation in the northern townships of Rakhine State (NRS) (Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathidaung townships) drastically deteriorated after the attacks on the Border Guard Police (BGP) bases on the 25th of August followed by a major operation launched by the Myanmar Army (Tatmadaw) to capture those involved. .As a result, it is estimated that as of July 2018, approximately 700 000 refugees had crossed the border into Bangladesh. At the same time, humanitarian agencies faced restrictions and constraints in accessing conflict areas.

It is within this context that FAO Myanmar has been implementing humanitarian and recovery interventions aiming at increasing the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crisis adhering to its organizational outcomes and to the priority areas stated in FAO Myanmar’s Country Strategic Framework (CPF) 2017 - 2022.

The project “Enhancing food security conditions of vulnerable communities in Northern part of Rakhine State” funded by Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience Programme Facility (HARP)/the Department of International Development (DFID) represents  one of the FAO’s intervention   that address the needs of farmers in Northern Rakhine .

While the majority of humanitarian actors active in the northern Rakhine State are focusing on the provision of food assistance to address the most immediate food necessities of the population, FAO is supporting local agricultural production to strengthened food production capacities thus reducing the need for food assistance. Partnering with Myanmar Heart Development Organization (MHDO) and the Rakhine State Department of Agriculture (DoA), 4,000 vulnerable households benefitted from paddy seeds, vegetable seeds and fertilizer. Moreover, the project is providing technical training of MHDO field staff and Department of Agriculture Extensionists  to provide food security and agriculture assistance to communities addressed by the project. .

In order to identify the potential interaction of the Government of the United Kingdom in economic, education and private sectors of northern Rakhine State, H.E. Mr Daniel Chugg, Ambassador of Her Britannic Majesty’s Embassy in Myanmar, visited the project sites in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships. Ms Xiaojie Fan, FAO Representative in Myanmar, and Mr Andrea Berloffa, Senior Resilience Officer of FAO, accompanied the ambassador and facilitated the field visit. The delegation visited  some of the villages addressed by FAO intervention, interacted with the beneficiaries and witnessed the implementation of a training on good agriculture practices conducted by Department of Agriculture extensionists and MHDO staff. The ongoing project is part of FAO program to provide emergency livelihood assistance to vulnerable population residing in Northern Rakhine. It represents a continuation of the the “Emergency Food Security Assistance in Maungdaw District of Rakhine State” project funded by the Department of International Development (DFID) and of  the project “Life Saving Food Security Assistance to Conflict Affected People in Northern Rakhine” funded by the Central Emergency Response Fund – CERF.

Since the start of the current humanitarian crises in August 2017, FAO has been able to reach almost 13,000 households or 69,700 people with its emergency assistance.  FAO activities in such context consider mainly distribution of agriculture inputs as seed and fertilizer, livestock for restocking purposes and provision of technical trainings to the beneficiaries to maximize the impact on the production.