Subsistence Farmers Hard-Hit By Drought in South

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

Abinet Assefa

23 April 2011

Kalito Dawit, 40, a mother of seven, owns half a hectare of land covered with maize, beans, sweet potatoes, and enset (false banana).

Her little farm is located in Sidama Zone of Bercha Wereda, Southern Regional State, located 298km from Addis Abeba.

Due to frequent scarcity of rains in the locality, she and many others like her cannot produce enough food on their small plots, according to Kalito.

“From the recent harvest, I could feed my family for only three months,” she told Fortune.

Kalito was among the many mothers who appeared at the Yerba Health Centre with her children in order to receive medical treatment for their malnourished children. Most of them suffer from kwashiorkor, an acute form of childhood protein energy malnutrition.

They are among those hit hardest by the drought in the South Omo Valley.

In a bid to mitigate the crisis, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Action (UN-OCHA) has called for 75 million dollars to fund a response to the drought in Southern, Somali, and Oromia regional states in April and May 2011.

The drought has affected 80,000 residents of the Southern Regional State, according to UN-OCHA.

Even worse off than Bercha Wereda are the people in Derashe Special Wereda and Konso Area in Southern Regional State. The inhabitants have been compelled by the failed rains to travel for up to 40km by foot to lake Hawassa in search of water.

“The problem has worsened due to the unavailability of a river or underground water,” Markos Urgesa, 48, a resident of Derashe, told Fortune.

Individuals have to pay anywhere between 12 Br and 15 Br for 25 litres of water, according to Markos.

Tenbaro Zone of Kacha Bira Wereda, Southern Regional State, is known for producing wheat, sweet potatoes, and enset. Unlike in Bercha Wereda, children are not seen in health centres due to food insufficiencies.

However, the past two months of failed rains will render farmers unable to harvest anything much according to Kebede Anase, 48, a resident of the area.

The people have requested food assistance from the wereda administration, Kebede claimed.

In the region’s 78 weredas, a total of 1.9 million people live under the government’s Safety Net Programme, Brehanu Tafa, head of communications for the regional agriculture office, told Fortune.

“This year, we did not see grave droughts in the region,” Berhanu said. “Evidence is being collected in those weredas about the residents who must be supported. If the problem is bad, we will conduct a strong follow-up through federal and regional food security bureaus.”

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