Farm Africa Introducing Crop Diversification, Alternative Food for Livestock
Nearly six million people also need emergency water, while some 435,000 children already require treatment for severe acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF. The agricultural assistance needed includes help for farmers and herders to produce staple crops like maize, sorghum, teff, wheat, and root crops, as many have either exhausted their seed reserves or consumed them as food.
With hundreds of thousands of livestock already dead, livestock feed is urgently needed, as well as help to produce fodder to counter the sharp decline in milk and meat production. FAO has said that the devastation would have been far more severe if the government had not invested in resilience programmes to reduce the risks of climate hazards.
Farm Africa is one of the organizations working with Ethiopian farmers to mitigate the effects of the drought by introducing agricultural schemes such as crop diversification and alternative food sources for livestock. The charity works closely with local authorities to help smallholder farmers cope with the drought and prepare for future climate hazards.
USAID