A UN official says 4 million Afghans are facing “a food ꦛemergency,” with the majority in rural areas where there is a critical need for funding for planting winter wheat, fee🅘d for livestock and cash assistance for vulnerable families, elderly and disabled.
The director of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Office of Emergencies and Resilience said Tuesday in a video briefing from Kabul says 70 per ce🔯nt of Afghans live in rural🔴 areas and agriculture is indispensable to the Afghan population.
Rein Paulson says it represents just over 25 per cent of Afghanistan's GDP, directly employs 45 per cent of the work force, “and most importantly🎶 it provides livelihood benefits for fully 80 per cent of th🌃e Afghan population.”
He says a severe drought is affecting 7.3 million people in 25 of the country's 34 provinces and rural communities also have been hurt by the pandemic. He says 4 million Afghans are ♊facing a humanitarian emergency characterized by “extreme gaps in food consump🌼tion, very high levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality.”
