Ethiopia offers $23m to tackle impacts of drought-Official

Ethiopia’s government has allotted more than $23 million to its regional states to help them to supply agricultural seeds to drought affected areas as rain distribution gets improve across the country, a senior government official disclosed on Friday.The country’s National Disaster Risk Management Commissioner Mitiku Kassa said the states will set aside additional budget to sustainably address the impacts of the El Nino induced drought in the country.

The drought has left 10.2 million people in need of food aid and aid agencies say that figure could rise to more than 15 million by August. Ethiopia’s total population is 90 million.

“We expect farmers to be relieved from the food assistance as they are going to harvest better yield as of next August. The government has allotted more than $23 million for each state to be used for supplying improved agricultural seeds and improve productivity drought hit areas.� the commissioner said

Since the El Nià±o global climactic phenomenon broke out in Ethiopia, it wreaked havoc on summer rains in Ethiopia. It came on the heels of failed spring rains, and has caused food insecurity, malnutrition and water shortages in affected areas of the country.

The Commissioner added that as the El Nino weather phenomenon is projected to stop this month and preparations are under way to enhance productivity using the upcoming rain and overcome the La Nina induced flooding.