ReliefWeb

Highlights

• 17.8 million people are food insecure, compared to 17 million in the first quarter of the year. A staggering 8.4 million of whom are at risk of famine, 24 percent more than mentioned in the March IPC.

• Despite monumental challenges, FAO programmes and activities reached 763 000 Yemenis in 2017, providing range of services from restocking animals and massive vaccination of livestock to providing basis food assistance, equipment and training to address immediate food insecurity and malnutrition.

• Acute food insecurity remains a serious concern. While there has been a partial lifting of the air-sea-land blockade, access to basic food and nutrition will likely get worse without continued, scaled up emergency food and livelihood assistance programmes. Domestic food prices are high and volatile. The average price of locally produced cereals went up sharply in Abyan by 25.6 percent for sorghum, by 114.3 percent for maize in Taiz, compared to October. Similarly, the monthly price of millet increased in most targeted governorates. Overall prices are still much higher than the pre-crisis prices by 137.2 percent for maize in Hadramout, by 94.0 percent for sorghum in Taiz, 100.8 percent for maize, 74 percent for millet and 207.7 percent for barley in Hodeidah.

• Water scarcity remains one of the main challenges in the agriculture sector. The unavailability of water for agricultural practices is the most limiting factor for food security. Rainfall so far has been less than expected but freezing weather in some areas has already damaged some crops.

• The animal production, including poultry sector, is under huge stress. The shortage of hard currency and the devaluation of the YER against the USD remains the most important challenge affecting the overall situation of the poultry sector. Farmers are faced with high cost of poultry input (feeds) and low prices of poultry products due to the low household purchasing power.