Rain falls but doesn't yet provide food in some malnutrition hotspots of Ethiopia

The rain is pouring daily in some of the areas where MSF started emergency nutritional activities in mid-May, the Oromiya and SNNP regions of Ethiopia. Landscape has turned bright green but when MSF staff is checking the nutritional status of children, the colour goes too often from yellow to red, from risk of malnutrition to severe malnutrition.

More than 21,500 patients suffering from severe malnutrition have already been admitted in the past three months in MSF nutritional centers. Food distributions for moderately malnourished children are scaling up: 10,000 children already received rations, which provide 25 to 28 kilos of enriched flour and 5 litres of oil for the child for a month. In the Siraro district of the Oroiya region, a second round of targeted food distributions (from sever malnutrition to at risk of malnutrition) has been done for 12,500 children. They have received 25 kilos of corn and soy blended and 3 litres of oil. In the highlands of SNNP region, the situation is still worsening, while in some other places, the trend is either stabilisation or improvement.

Food distributions needed

"It is not possible to identify a general trend across the country – the crisis is highly localised in some areas, there are different agro climatic zones, and the timeframe for rains varies", explains Sally STEVENSON, one of the MSF head of mission in Ethiopia "Even in places where the rate of admissions is slowly declining, the population continues to need food support, at least for the coming weeks. We treat acute malnutrition but it doesn't fulfil the deep need of food in the most affected places."
 
Despite the several pipelines of food implemented by the Ethiopian government and World Food Program, the needs are still high in some places. The maize harvest can be expected in a few weeks in the South but it is too early to be optimistic. Many parcels of land are yellow in some places, like Beisha, in the Kindo Dindaye district in SNNP region.

Maize is near to be harvested but Jamar, a farmer, is not relieved at all: "Half of the two parcels I cultivate is spoiled, first it was too sunny and then too rainy. We are ten in the family." At least Jamar owns a cow, two goats and two chickens, he has a living capital. Actually, Jamar is not in such a bad situation compared to the population in the area, he belongs to the middle category.

High prices of major staple food

In Patata, in the same district, Godebo is more optimistic about the harvest, even if there also the rains were too heavy. He expects to harvest in one or two months. But this will be only a subsistence. "I have only small parcel to cultivate, my father had many children and we all took our share. Ethiopian farmers can neither sell nor buy land, it is a state property. "I have children to feed and we have only one season for staple food. I don't sell the maize and the wheat I produce, it's all for the family but it lasts only two or three months. After, it's only ensete."

In most of the lands grow trees looking like banana trees, called false banana, they don't give any fruit but women take the starch out of the roots and the stems of the leaves, bury it for months to get it fermented and then bake a paste. Ensete grows easily and can be used all the year long for many purposes (food for the family and for the animals, construction). Godebo is more worried about the food prices, which are still rising. In the SNNP region, prices of maize and sorghum have increased 160% from January to June according to the World Food Program monitoring.

Debts to buy a little of food

He is not registered under the Safety Net program, under which "the poorest of the poor" receive from January until June either food or a few days of paid work. He also didn't get emergency food aid. "We cut the number of meals per day and also the quantities" explains Godebo, "but I still have to buy food. I borrowed 1.000 birrhs (100$) with an interest rate of 20 birrhs per month. People lend me money because I have a cow, but if I sell my cow, I have nothing left." One of Godebo's son, Batere, age four, is severely malnourished. Every week, he receives 14 rations of therapeutic food (according to his weight), 5 kilos of enriched flour and one litter of oil through the MSF program. When his weight will have improved enough, he will stop the treatment and get a discharge food ration of 25 kilos of enriched flour and 5 litres of oil.