DUSHANBE The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent appealed to international donor states Friday to help Tajikistan stave off a looming famine, AFP reported.
The Red Cross sent a fact-finding group to the Central Asian state last month to determine the extent of the problem, following an appeal for help from President Emomali Rakhmonov earlier this year.
The group visited 14 regions in Tajikistan's north and south, where some three million people face the threat of famine, according to the UN World Food Program.
"The situation is much more serious than we expected," said Roger Bracke, the Red Cross's special envoy leading the group.
"The harvest on rich soils has been scant, and nothing at all in some places, bringing farmers only losses," he added.
The Red Cross plans to deliver some 25,000 tons of food to around 250,000 Tajiks at risk.
The operation will cost around seven million dollars, Bracke said.
"In six or eight weeks the most vulnerable will go hungry, so it's necessary to prepare a large humanitarian operation now," Bracke said.
According to the Tajik Agriculture Ministry, this year's harvest will only provide enough food for three months.
Officials calculate that the impoverished mountainous republic needs 313,000 tons of extra foodstuffs to make it through its tough winter.
Medical conditions such as typhus, diarrhoea, malaria and anaemia have spread in Tajikistan's rural areas, where the devastating drought has reduced grain production to zero in some districts.
Villagers have been forced to sell precious farm animals and personal possessions in order to buy enough wheat to survive.
Rakhmonov appealed for international aid in May, securing pledges of support from Germany and the United States. The drought has caused an estimated 57 million dollars (64 million euros) worth of damage.