(AFP Photo)
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) requires $33m to help over 21,000 families and farmers in Gaza “minimise the deterioration of their productive assets and restore their livelihoods”.
“Food insecurity in Gaza is essentially poverty‐driven, resulting from lack of economic access to food rather than lack of food in the markets,” the organisation said. “Before the crisis, a staggering 72% of families were food insecure or vulnerable to food insecurity, 66% received food assistance, 70% lived on less than $2 per day, and 45% faced unemployment.”
Until September, the FAO was able to successfully collect $4.8m, with the financial gap standing at $28.2, adding that contributors included the governments of Canada and Spain.
The FAO said its priorities are to provide emergency support to low-resilience fishers, and urban and peri-urban livelihoods in the Gaza Strip.
“FAO will help herders restock lost animals and provide time-critical inputs to keep surviving animals healthy and productive, such as animal feed, veterinary supplies and water storage units,” the FAO said in an official report.
The organisation said it also seeks to help farmers who are affected by the political conflict by providing essential farming inputs. The FAO will give farmers seeds, seedlings, fertilisers and materials needed to repair on-farm infrastructure.
The FAO added that it “seeks to rehabilitate newly accessible arable land and wells in the Access Restricted Areas and provide vulnerable families with the necessary inputs and training to grow vegetables and field crops”.
Damage from the resent Gaza-Israel conflict includes the loss of 40% of poultry and 36% of all livestock. Around 41% of the annual agricultural production was also lost and over 13,000 greenhouses were either damaged or destroyed.
