Emergency time-critical seed support for the Meher planting season to drought-affected smallholder farming communities in Amhara, Oromiya, SNNP and Tigray Regions of Ethiopia. Ethiopia has been facing one of the worst droughts in its history. Driven by the El Niño phenomenon (currently in an ENSO neutral stage), the failure and below-average performance of two consecutive rainy seasons has had profound impact on the lives and livelihoods of millions, especially rural households engaged in the agriculture sector. In addition to the rapid deterioration of food security, the drought has led to huge economic losses – agriculture accounts for 42% of Gross Domestic Product, over 80 percent of exports and employs 80 percent of the workforce. Having lost 50 to 90 percent (or in some cases, all) of their crops in worst-hit areas, many smallholder farming households lost their source of food and income, driving them further into poverty. As a result of El Niño, some 1.7 million households do not have enough seed to plant they have either exhausted their reserves due to the unsuccessful replanting of their fields in 2015, or have been driven to consume their seed as food. Without means of production, farming households are extremely vulnerable.

To ensure farmers are able to meet the meher season, which produces over 80 percent of the country’s food supplies, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has worked closely with themergency Seed Working Group (ESWG), of which the Organization is co-lead with the Government, to identify priority areas for seed support intervention with resources from the Humanitarian Response Fund (HRF). Together with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), 65 woredas were selected based on criteria established through the ESWG, including: status as a Priority 1 hotspot woreda (classified by the Government according to six indicators, including nutrition and agriculture) being meher-dependent and having not received assistance during the belg season and not targeted with seed support under secured funding for the meher season. ESWG-member NGO partners agreed on the selection of 23 woredas of the 65 identified that were within their operational areas for seed support with HRF resources FAO will cover 11 of the 65. ESWG partners committed to avoid overlapping and harmonize their approach in terms of minimum seed kits to be distributed, among other guidelines.

To complement the work of the partner NGOs and ensure all identified priority woredas are able to plant in the meher season, FAO will provide emergency seed support to 37 500 vulnerable households in eleven hotspot meher-dependent woredas in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray Regions. FAO will focus its assistance on those woredas which are not supported by NGO and/or government. The project will procure and distribute crop, legume and vegetable seed to the most vulnerable households in selected communities. To ensure inclusive targeting, beneficiary selection communities will be established to target female headed households (30 percent of beneficiaries) and representatives of the disabled and elderly. In close partnership with local Government institutions (e.g. regional Bureaus of Agriculture [BoAs]) and in consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR) and local communities, FAO will cost effectively reach targeted areas with locally appropriate seed support. Further, FAO will conduct three assessments (post-distribution, post-planting and post-harvest) to measure the impact of HRF-supported assistance and present results to the ESWG and stakeholders.