Climate Risk Management for Enhancing Food Security in Ethiopia
Abstract
Poverty reduction and attaining food security for all has become one of the top priority development agenda of Ethiopian government. Thus the country put in place for the first time food security strategy in 1996, which was up-dated in 2002. Despite of this, the problem of food insecurity and food shortage still persisted in the country. Some 33.6% (37.4% in rural and 27.9% in urban areas) of the country's population are the food poor who had access to and consumed below the minimum requirement of 2100 Kcal in 2010/2011 (MoFED, 2012). A sizable proportion of Ethiopian children (under five years) are stunted (51%), underweight (35%) and wasted (12%). One reason for persisting food insecurity in the country has been the failure to design coherent and focused food security policy that take into account diversity in agro-ecology, socio-cultural differences, and the complexity of the causes of food insecurity.
Multiple factors induce food insecurity in Ethiopia and hence effectively addressing food shortage in the country requires integrated efforts of various institutions. Looking food insecurity as a disaster caused by various hazards that induce chronic food shortage, the DRMFSS directorate of the MOA has attempted to design comprehensive Disaster Risk Management (DRM) policy. It is unfortunate that the policy is still pending. Climatic risks to food insecurity in Ethiopia are mainly related to rainfall variability, drought and flooding. The crop production data obtained from CSA has been regressed on annual total rainfall of 30 different meteorological stations in Ethiopia as drawn from NMA. The results show that total rainfall has a significant impact on the crop production in Ethiopian conditions. The seasonal marginal impact analysis indicates that marginally increasing temperature during summer and winter would significantly reduce crop production whereas marginally increasing precipitation during spring would significantly increase the produce. Another argument of this paper is that proper addressing of climate-induced disasters should rely on effective DRM techniques that take into account pre-disaster, disaster period and post-disaster interventions measures. Various drought and flood prevention, mitigation and preparedness interventions and strategies that can greatly contribute to the country’s food security have been identified and proposed.
Climate Risk Management for Enhancing Food Security in Ethiopia
Poverty reduction and attaining food security for all has become one of the top priority development agenda of Ethiopian government. Thus the country put in place for the first time food security strategy in 1996, which was up-dated in 2002. Despite of this, the problem of food insecurity and food shortage still persisted in the country. Some 33.6% (37.4% in rural and 27.9% in urban areas) of the country's population are the food poor who had access to and consumed below the minimum requirement of 2100 Kcal in 2010/2011 (MoFED, 2012). A sizable proportion of Ethiopian children (under five years) are stunted (51%), underweight (35%) and wasted (12%). One reason for persisting food insecurity in the country has been the failure to design coherent and focused food security policy that take into account diversity in agro-ecology, socio-cultural differences, and the complexity of the causes of food insecurity.
Multiple factors induce food insecurity in Ethiopia and hence effectively addressing food shortage in the country requires integrated efforts of various institutions. Looking food insecurity as a disaster caused by various hazards that induce chronic food shortage, the DRMFSS directorate of the MOA has attempted to design comprehensive Disaster Risk Management (DRM) policy. It is unfortunate that the policy is still pending. Climatic risks to food insecurity in Ethiopia are mainly related to rainfall variability, drought and flooding. The crop production data obtained from CSA has been regressed on annual total rainfall of 30 different meteorological stations in Ethiopia as drawn from NMA. The results show that total rainfall has a significant impact on the crop production in Ethiopian conditions. The seasonal marginal impact analysis indicates that marginally increasing temperature during summer and winter would significantly reduce crop production whereas marginally increasing precipitation during spring would significantly increase the produce. Another argument of this paper is that proper addressing of climate-induced disasters should rely on effective DRM techniques that take into account pre-disaster, disaster period and post-disaster interventions measures. Various drought and flood prevention, mitigation and preparedness interventions and strategies that can greatly contribute to the country’s food security have been identified and proposed.