Drought: Somalia, Kenya benefits from FAO's Early Warning fund

NaijaAgroNet:

The two countries of Somalia and Kenya are among the first countries to benefit from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO's) new Early Warning Early Action Fund (EWEA), reports NaijaAgroNet.

The fund, NaijaAgroNet gathered, ensures quick activation of emergency plans when there is a high likelihood of a disaster that would affect agriculture and people's food and nutrition security.

Also, NaijaAgroNet reports that the fund will be part of a larger Early Warning Early Action System that tracks climate data and earth imaging to determine what areas are at risk of an imminent shock and will benefit from early intervention.

Although at the time of filing this report, FAO has not disclosed how much the benefits to the two countries are worth.

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Somalia may slide back to food insecurity – FAO warns

Irrigated crops make Somali farmers more resilient.

Head of operations at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FOA) in Somalia, Luca Alinovi has sounded a warning that the country may slide back into food crisis, if present initiative towards food security is disengaged.

“By designing and executing a build-back-better process,” Luca said affected Somalia communities had get back on their feet in months but the danger is that the initiatives should be sustained in order to ensure full recovery from drought.

The eastern Africa republic is still at the verge of drought as the situations remains critical, hence, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization affirmed that continued aid is vital.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the United Nations made a declaration last year July about the state of famine in Somalia which caused thousands of deaths and call for a massive humanitarian aid programme in a bid to preserve food security in the affected areas.

One of FAO’s latest forecasts also warns of reduced rains in the year which will lead to a below-average to poor harvest in some parts of the south which include the major sorghum-producing region, and deterioration of food security situation.

Aid strategy by the UN agency was designed to help farmers and herders to build long-term resilience to drought and other emergencies in regions plagued by recurrent droughts.

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