Having lost 30 per cent of its crops this year to drought, plagues and locusts, East Timor will need 15,000 tons of emergency food assistance during the upcoming "lean season," the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday. According to field research conducted by the agency and the UN's World Food Programme, a major food crisis is looming for up to 220,000 East Timorese, or one-fifth of the conflict-torn, impoverished country's population, unless the international aid community provides emergency assistance in the next six months. "A poor harvest this year has worsened the already fragile livelihoods of people all over Timor but especially among the poorest people living in rural and more remote districts," said Anthony Banbury, the World Food Programme's regional director for Asia.
