Food

Scarcity
In
Ethiopia
The extent of food scarcity across Ethiopia
Ethiopia has experienced civil wars, tremendous poverty, and drought
during the previous ten years, along with other horn of Africa nations like
Kenya, Eritrea and Somalia. Droughts are mostly brought on by climate
change, which has had an impact on Ethiopia in various ways, including the
accessibility of food. According to the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the primary Kirempt rains (seasonal
rains) provide food for between 80 and 85 percent of the country, making
Ethiopia's current drought extremely dangerous. People experience food
crises when there isn't enough rain to grow crops, produce food, and feed
their family and animals. At the same time, they are unable to afford to buy
or produce food. According to The World Food Programme, nearly 4 million
people have been displaced by conflict and drought, and there are 20.4
million people in Ethiopia who require food assistance. Due to the crisis,
many breastfeeding women in Ethiopia are unable to feed their infants; only
8 to 9 percent of mothers fully breastfeed; as a result, every year,
approximately 200,000 children die before their fifth birthday and one-third
of infants die.
Factors influencing agricultural yields
There are alot of things that influence the agriculture in
Ethiopia, main factors include; rapid increase in population,
climate change, decline of available natural resources, young
unemployment, political turmoil, and civil conflicts. The
population of ethiopia as of 2022 is over 123 million people, with
this huge number, the people need to find a way to live, the
minimum is to find food, but they can't seem to be able to do so,
and it affects a huge portion of the population and leads to a lot
of problems, one of them is malnutrition. Because of constant
climate changes, recently extreme drought, makes it really
hard for the country to produce and grow food. The UN
reported on February 8 that the East African peninsula is
experiencing the driest circumstances seen in 40 years as a
result of three consecutive failed rainy seasons, leaving 13
million people in extreme starvation. The drought in Ethiopia
has caused widespread crop failure and livestock deaths. As a
result, there has been an increase in displacement and a rise in
hunger rates. Inflation rates and food prices have also
skyrocketed and because of the rapid increase in population,
even the food available isn't enough to feed that many people.
Again, because of droughts, groundwater and surface water
resources have dried up, making it difficult for farmers to get
water to water their crops. Droughts also cause forests to dry
out and catch fire, killing a lot of natural resources that would
otherwise be used to support crop growth.
 TWO CHALLENGES TO REDUCING
FOOD SCARCITY INDUSTRY >

Ethiopia may have a plan to reduce the country's food insecurity, but
there will always be unexpected events that could seriously
undermine or at the very least delay the plan. Climate change and
population growth are those reasons. Since international issues like
global warming and glasshouse gas emissions have an impact on the
climate, it can be unpredictable and out of control in some extreme
situations. Any plans for addressing Ethiopia's food crisis could be
easily derailed by these climate changes, just as the recent acute
drought and change in seasonal rain patterns did for the country.
Population growth could be a major contributor to
reducing food scarcity in Ethiopia. Something like
this changes every single day and it’s
uncontrollable to some extent. When the country’s
government finds more people to feed everyday is
very hard. The issue with population expansion is
that more items must be provided in greater
quantities, which requires more money, more
resources, and more labourers. The country
currently faces enough challenges that have to do
with finding resources and providing money and
workers, and all of that without adding population
growth to the list. Ethiopia’s population grows by
2.7% each year, so more people to feed.
 Evaluation of sustainable practices
used to achieve food security
While Ethiopia is experiencing a food crisis, organizations and
individuals are working to help the country by considering ways to
support it and find sustainable solutions to this issue. Suggestions for
solutions included keeping up sustainable agriculture. Climate
change is having an impact on agriculture in some areas of Ethiopia,
but there are still some regions that are able to maintain essentially
healthy agricultural yields. If done well, something like this will be
very sustainable and advantageous for the country. To develop the
lands, farmers can get well trained in better agricultural practices and
give them improved seed so they are better able to achieve their goals.
If something like this receives sufficient funding, it will certainly be
sustainable and contribute to reducing food scarcity. An organization
like Support for Sustainable Development (SSD), which was founded
in 2003 and is based in Ethiopia, can assist in finding funding for
projects that will improve the land and support agricultural
development. Another solution is to work towards defeating climate
change. It's difficult to say whether this is sustainable or not until it's
put to the test, depending on how it's carried out, but addressing
climate change in general will benefit the country in many ways,
including reducing food scarcity.