Local Editor
The Food and Agriculture Organisation [FAO] on Thursday warned that more than half of the Yemeni population, nearly 14.4 million people, are threatened with food insecurity, an increase of 12 per cent since June 2015.
In a statement the organization said fuel shortages and restrictions on imports have reduced the availability of essential food commodities and caused food and fuel prices to soar since the conflict escalated in March 2015.
FAO Representative in Yemen, Salah Elhajj Hassan, said: "Food insecurity and malnutrition are becoming highly critical." He called for urgent support to assist families in growing food and protect their livestock as well as measures to facilitate much-needed food and fuel imports.
"Under these critical conditions, it’s more important than ever to help families produce their own food and reduce their dependence on increasingly scarce and costly food imports," said Etienne Peterschmitt, FAO deputy representative and Emergency Response Team leader in Yemen.
According to the statement, only four per cent of the country’s land is arable and only a fraction of that land is currently used for food production.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
