SO MUCH CREDIT FOR FOOD SECURITY CONFERENCE AT CAMP DAVID.

The issue is no longer whether or not Ethiopia is able to produce enough crops to feed, the issue is Ethiopians have enough money in their pocket to buy the food and consume it. With too many babies being birthed annually, inflation is doubling the population growth, add corruption where only the few on top earn and take as much as their morality can afford them to, there is a perfect mix for a failed state. Forget food shortage, the country is about done.

In the name of humanity, its time to give the region to the people who can manage it better than what's happening, bless the Eris and ask them in what capacity do they need our help to rearrange the region to be a viable region again.

ETHIOPIA: Poor rains prompt calls for more food assistance

ADDIS ABABA, 25 May 2012 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are calling for more food assistance for areas in southern and northeastern Ethiopia where erratic rains have adversely affected the mid-February to May 'Belg' crop.

"We have a very significant shortage of food in much of [the] 'Belg' season dependent areas of the country particularly in SNNPR, [Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region]" Mike McDonagh, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ethiopia, told IRIN.

Other affected areas include parts of the northeast in the Amhara, Oromia and Tigray regions.

The 'Belg' harvest, which accounts for up to 40 percent of annual food production in some areas, is expected to reduce in 2012 due to the late onset and below-average performance of the mid-February to May rains, which were 2-8 weeks late.

"The situation is of concern and is being monitored closely," said Judith Schuler, spokesperson of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia, adding that the number of food-insecure people could increase.

At present, an estimated 3.2 million people are food insecure in Ethiopia, down from a peak of 4.5 million during the 2011 Horn of Africa drought. Revised figures are expected in mid-July.

WFP requires US$183 million by the end of 2012, to support 2.5 million of the 3.2 million people in need of emergency food assistance.

The situation in SNNPR, which borders Kenya and South Sudan, is of particular concern.

The 'Belg' crop harvest there accounts for 35-40 percent of production, with root crops, mainly sweet potatoes, contributing 50 percent of the harvest in some districts. But the extended dry period had resulted in an almost total failure of the crop - and others such as haricot beans, potatoes and maize, which were expected to fill the food gap between March and June - according to the government's latest (May) Early Warning and Response analysis.

Aid agencies say a lack of sufficient recovery time after the 2011 drought could aggravate the situation for vulnerable households whose assets and other coping mechanisms were depleted.

Malnutrition rising

Already, the number of malnourished people is rising, said OCHA's McDonagh.

According to OCHA, close to 90,000 children, pregnant women and nursing mothers in SNNPR alone are moderately malnourished at present, and the number is increasing.

"March was worse than February, April was worse than March and we expect May to be worse than April," said McDonagh. "So it gets worse for a period and then maybe around July and August... it could reduce again."

"We need general rations, what we call relief food. We need more supplementary food. We need therapeutic foods and we need also inputs such as seeds."

The number of severely malnourished children in therapeutic feeding programmes is increasing, with earlier and greater increases than in 2011, according to the Agriculture Ministry's Emergency Nutrition Coordination Unit.

For example, from January to February, admissions to the programmes increased by 15.3 percent and went up a further 27 percent from February to March. The March to April figures are not available.

According to Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia's minister of agriculture, the agriculture and health ministries are monitoring the food insecurity situation.

"Irregularity in rainfall seasons resulting [in] problems of such [a] kind is not a new thing to us," Mitiku said. "We faced it last year and a year before that and we are managing it so far… The country has enough resources and mechanisms in place to deal with it this time, though."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95528/ET ... assistance

International institutions like the IMF and the World Bank are painting grossly distorted picture of Ethiopia's economy to mislead the public for their financial gain. People often forget that the IMF and the World Bank earn profit by lending money to poor countries. They are banks, not non-profit charity organizations, so whatever statistics they present has everything to do with their best interest at heart. Currently, the beggar woyane regime is borrowing money from the World Bank to buy wheat from other countries. And it would be stupid for the bank to expose its client's delinquent balance. They want Zenawi to borrow more and more money to buy food. That's how they make their profit.

International institutions like the IMF and the World Bank are painting grossly distorted picture of Ethiopia's economy to mislead the public for their financial gain. People often forget that the IMF and the World Bank earn profit by lending money to poor countries. They are banks, not non-profit charity organizations, so whatever statistics they present has everything to do with their best interest at heart. Currently, the beggar woyane regime is borrowing money from the World Bank to buy wheat from other countries. And it would be stupid for the bank to expose its client's delinquent balance. They want Zenawi to borrow more and more money to buy food. That's how they make their profit.

I could not agree more. They are not charity organizations, if they were they would lose money, they are there to lend and lend some more as long as one has a collateral to back the loan in case should something goes wrong. Ethiopia is the most fertile land, and lots of people with too much need and dependibility on others, that weakness is well exploited, to the maximum. Because they ahve offices in a poor country, they give legitimacy, but deep down their job is to create imbalance and exploit that imbalance. They would never give big enough money to get one out of the predicament one is, they give enough money to keep one on a state of half awake.