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From: Sophia Tesfamariam (sophia_tesfamariam@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Aug 19 2011 - 09:33:49 EDT
Famine in Eritrea: Real or Imagined?
Kibreab Tesfai
In
the past few days, we have been inundated by a spate of news reports of a
presumed “famine that is gripping Eritrea”.
The sirens of doom and gloom are wailing loud again.
To
illustrate: the August 5 Edition of Africa Confidential reads: “…The
Horn of Africa’s worst drought in six decades has prompted the United Nations
to take the rare step of declaring famine in two regions of Somalia…The gravity
of the crisis has been known for a year, with no effective international
reaction. It could prompt political
turmoil mainly in Somalia and Eritrea but
also in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya… About a quarter of Somalia’s ten million
people have fled from areas controlled by Al Shabab… Eritrean President,
Issayas Afwerki… denies people in his country face famine and refuses to deal
with aid agencies”. Similar stories
appeared in various news agencies and daily papers, including the Japan Times. To cap it all, US Representative to the UN,
Susan Rice, told Inner City Press on August 10 “…We believe there is famine in
Eritrea, but we are deeply concerned that none of us know because they have
barred UN agencies, barred NGOs. … And
the people of Eritrea, who must… most likely are suffering the very same food
shortages …are being left to starve because there is not access, there is a
clear cut denial of access by the government of Eritrea of food and other
humanitarian support for its people”.
What
are the true facts? Is there an iota of
truth in these wild accusations? Is Eritrea really seething under the
pernicious threat of famine while its “callous” government “covers up the
facts” as its detractors allege? Are the
reports based on field visits or credible assessment by competent bodies? And who are the forces now singing to the
same chorus, anyway? Do they really care
about the well-being of the Eritrean people?
Or is this part and parcel of the ongoing, insidious, hate and
demonization campaign against Eritrea and its President doggedly pursued by
Eritrea’s enemies to advance ulterior political motives that have nothing to do
with philanthropic or developmental agendas and objectives?
The
Horn of Africa region remains, sadly, prone to cyclical droughts which at times
have bordered on calamitous famines of biblical proportions (the harrowing
famine that claimed more than 200,000 lives in Ethiopia in 1974; less severe
droughts that afflicted the region in 1980s etc). Adverse climatic conditions that produce
these perennial droughts almost in every decade; erratic rains which come, when
they do, in torrential patterns out of sync with the harvest timeline of traditional
farmers; archaic agricultural methods; obsolete land tenure systems; poor or
non-existent water harvesting infrastructure; and, the paucity or absence of
large-scale modern irrigation schemes remain key factors that continue to
dampen agricultural productivity and national output below optimal levels even
during good years of bumper harvest. These systemic problems are further compounded
by intra-State and inter-State conflicts - of which the Horn has had more than
its fare share in the last fifty years -
as development agendas are hampered and vital resources diverted to
shore up national security needs.
But
intractable as they may seem, the recurrent bouts of drought and crop shortfall
that stalk the Horn countries cannot not, and should not, elude effective
remedies or enduring solutions for long.
A much graver problem would be a mindset that perceives these challenges
as a perpetual regional bane that can only be cushioned and mitigated by
international humanitarian assistance.
And in this respect, the policies and track record of the Government of
Eritrea have been focused, purposeful, and visionary in as far as the
marshalling of vital resources for accelerating the desired long-term solution
is concerned, and, realistic and pragmatic in tackling prevalent harvest
shortfalls in the short-term by tapping all available and appropriate
instruments (local subsidies, soliciting food assistance when needed etc.).
This
is illustrated by the following facts:
·
For the last
decade, and especially since 2005, the GOE has put food security, both at the
national and household levels, as its highest priority in its developmental
drive. To this end, the Ministry of
Agriculture has been vigorously pursuing rolling three-year programmes of
agricultural modernity whose critical components include the erection of
efficient water management and harvesting structures, the expansion of soil
preservation and enrichment techniques, the establishment and enlargement of
modern irrigation farms as well as research on high yield seeds. Government budgetary allocations to these
programmes have not only been substantial but the GOE has also sought support
from its international development partners.
(Among other things, the EU’s support to this programme, though still at
the project formulation stage, amounts to 70 million Euros).
·
Especially in the
last decade, the Ministry of Agriculture has introduced extensive income
supplementing programmes for rural communities that include: credit facilities
for agricultural activities, the distribution of baby chicks for backyard
poultry development, the provision of bee-hives etc.
·
During the lean
years of relatively low annual agricultural output, the Government has
purchased the necessary food items from the international market and sold them
at subsidized prices to the population at large through designated
outlets. At very critical times of total
harvest failure (in 2002 for instance), the Government has solicited
international assistance to supplement its efforts and to shore up the coping
mechanisms of the affected communities.
The GOE is not, of course, inclined to seek, bowl in hand, food
assistance every time there is a harvest deficit if the latter is manageable
through its own resources and devices.
(Ethiopia routinely seeks food assistance for localized drought even
when it produces huge food surpluses at the national level because it stands to
earn hard currency for transport and local purchase by donors from the surplus
regions).
·
Eritrea had even
sought, in the initial years after its independence, to strengthen IGAD as a
vehicle of regional cooperation in mitigating drought through leveraging
regional resources, prepositioning grain stocks etc, though these were hampered
later due to externalities.
The current food situation in Eritrea
I
have digressed from the main issue of the “presumed famine” in Eritrea in the
belief that a broader perspective of the circumstances that underpin drought
and some discussion of GOE policies and practices are vital for an informed
discourse on the topic at hand. Let me
now revert to the actual facts.
As
the tables below illustrate, the harvest last year was good because the long
rains (June-September 2010) were exceptionally good. Annual precipitation varied from a low of 145mm
to a high of 750mm. This exceeded the
average levels by 30% and 20% respectively.
But the difference was not only in the aggregate volume of
rainfall. Most critically, the frequency
of the rains was at its optimum in the sense of continuous showers, without
lengthy interruptions or intervals in July and August. The geographical distribution of the rains,
another critical parameter for adequate food security at the household level,
was also at its optimum since all the regions received good rainfall at the
right season. Consequently, there were
no areas of localized drought or crop shortfall. In addition, all the dams and wells were
replenished increasing horticultural national produce and boosting the animal stock.
Table I - Area and Production
of Crops 2001-2010*
Year
Area (Ha)
Production (ton)
2001
386,696
237,990
2002
393,267
64,290
2003
468,093
115,330
2004
421,969
89,254
2005
521,889
379,865
2006
539,969
431,549
2007
540,380
489,270
2008
437,155
109,078
2009
481,084
244,160
2010
482,844
420,654
*Source: Ministry of Agriculture
The
tables above on annual crop, vegetable and fruit production demonstrate that
the aggregate agricultural output in 2010, amounting to over 860,000 metric
tons, was the highest in the last decade.
Furthermore, as pointed out earlier, production at the household level
was at its highest due to non-skewed or more even geographic distribution of
the rains with almost optimal frequency over the rainy season.
These
are the hard, indelible, facts. Hard
facts that have never been contested by the several UN agencies that operate in
the country (UNDP, UNICEF, FAO, WHO etc.).
True, UN agencies are required to seek permits to travel to certain
parts of the country. But that is not
tantamount to a blanket travel ban.
These agencies indeed routinely monitor whatever projects they have
throughout the country. Moreover, a
cursory comparison of prices of staple grains – sorghum, maize, wheat, teff
etc. – in Asmara and other urban areas for the same months of 2009 and 2010
corroborate the difference in harvests as 2010 prices were invariably lower by
almost 100% for all these grains despite
seasonal fluctuations.
All
these non-sense about a “hidden famine” in Eritrea is thus utterly false. More importantly, it is patently clear that
those who are peddling these lies harbor malicious intentions against
Eritrea. The cynicism is particularly
repugnant as some of those shedding crocodile tears on the “silent suffering of
the Eritrean population” are currently engaged in slamming punitive economic
sanctions against Eritrea and have all along been feverishly working to
obstruct investment and meaningful economic progress of the country. In reality, these forces are not interested
in preventing or mitigating famine in Eritrea.
On the contrary, that is what they crave to see to find additional
excuses, like “humanitarian intervention”, to promote their sinister
objectives. If, among the flock, there
are some gullible journalists who have fallen into the trap, again, there is no
excuse for their sloppy journalism and irresponsibility. We are sick and tired of the endless game
of impugning and indicting Eritrea for non-existent facts and events.
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