Food Security Outlook

Increasing need for relief food assistance is highly likely between April and September 2012 according to the new Food Security Outlook jointly issued by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) and WFP. Poor households in belg-receiving parts of southern and north-eastern Ethiopia are expected to become increasingly food insecure as a result of poor crop and livestock production resulting from the late onset and below-average performance of the belg (mid-February to May) rains.

In the southern and south-eastern pastoralist areas, food security is likely to remain precarious due to the impact of repeated drought events in 2010 and 2011, and the below-normal rainfall expected during the current guu/ganna (April to June) season. Livestock to cereal terms of trade are expected to further decline in southern and south-eastern parts of the country. Rising food prices are also likely between May and September in view of the poor prospects for the belg harvest and depletion of remaining stocks from the last harvest. The sweet potato-growing areas of Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) – the sweet potato harvest experienced an 80 to 100 per cent failure this year – and major belg-cropping areas in the north-eastern highlands and southern SNNPR will be among the areas most affected.

For more information, contact: ethiopia@fews.net