Ethiopia has made considerable progress toward food security since the 1984 famine captured worldwide media attention. Almost 30 years after that calamity, Ethiopian per capita income has increased, poverty has fallen, food security has improved, and the groundwork has been laid for sustained economic growth.
One reason for Ethiopia’s recent economic success has been sustained agricultural growth, which averaged 2.9 percent in the 1990s and 6.2 percent in the 2000s. Sustaining and building on the progress made toward national and household food security will involve investing in agricultural productivity and nonfarm economic opportunities, promoting efficient markets, expanding the transportation and communications infrastructure, maintaining macroeconomic stability, and further improving social safety nets and disaster response mechanisms.
Factors behind Ethiopia’s recent successes, assessments of ongoing programs’ performance, and options for future policies are explored in the book Food and Agriculture in Ethiopia: Progress and Policy Challenges, edited by Paul Dorosh and Shahidur Rashid and recently published by the University of Pennsylvania Press for IFPRI. The book examines the Ethiopian economy, particularly Ethiopian agriculture, during the first decade of the 2000s and identifies ways of further reducing poverty and promoting economic growth and food security.