Abstract
In this article, we analyze the effects of drought on Ethiopian rural households' food security and associated risk management strategies. Severe droughts have led to a significant depression of crop yields and death of livestock in the past. Droughts have drastically increased the proportion of food-insecure households and lengthened the duration of food insecurity in the area. Ex-ante adaptation strategies widely practised in the area include storage of crop residues as fodder for livestock, rearing of drought tolerant livestock, mixed cropping, use of short-duration crop varieties, and adoption of soil and water conservation practices. Ex-post coping strategies utilized by households include sale of assets and reliance on support from informal networks. Training farmers in the production and conservation of livestock fodder as well as in soil and water conservation practices appear to be key options relevant to strengthen farmers’ capacity to adapt to and cope with drought.
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Notes
Peasant Association is the smallest administrative unit in Ethiopia.
The DCSI has foundations in the Coping Strategy Index (CSI) developed by CARE and World Food Programme (WFP). The CSI combined both income and consumption strategies into one index to measure household food security and the impact of food aid programmes. The index was used in countries like Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Ghana (CARE/WFP, 2003; Maxwell et al, 2003; Collins, 2004). A detailed procedure of computing CSI is contained in CARE/WFP (2003).
Elevation (Sub-basin): Elevation and rainfall are the main criteria for sub-basin classification (c.f Taddese et al, 2001; Halcrow (1989) cited in Wagnew, 2004). In general, the uplands receive higher amounts of rainfall than the Upper Valley sub-basin, making them more suitable for crop production.
Livestock feed and water reliability: Livestock is an integral part of livelihoods in Ethiopia (Hellmuth et al, 2007). Drought usually affects livestock production via feed and water shortages characterized by grazing inadequacies and drying of water sources (IFAD, 2009). In order to assess drought resilience in terms of the two variables (feed and water availability), relative differences (percentage changes) for each variable between normal and drought year were calculated. PAs exhibiting smaller percentages for each variable are assumed to be more resilient to drought than those with higher percentage changes.
The decision rule was to select one drought with the highest severity score in each PA. In cases of several equal severities, the most recent event (in year 2000 or later) with a severity score equal or greater than 3 were selected because recent drought events could be remembered easily by the respondents. The severity scoring and decision rule were adapted from Keil (2004).
Peasant leaders were asked to provide an estimate of the proportion of households affected by each drought effect in their respective PAs.
Borena Breeds are those that have been bred to adapt to dry areas – adaptable to low plane of nutrition. Borena is named after an area in Ethiopia, which is typically dry.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the willingness of the interviewed farm households to participate in the survey and the research assistants who worked tirelessly to collect the data. The authors would like to thank the journal's anonymous referees for their helpful comments of this article. The perspectives and insights presented here are those of the authors and do not reflect those of any organization.
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Murendo, C., Keil, A. & Zeller, M. Drought impacts and related risk management by smallholder farmers in developing countries: Evidence from Awash River Basin, Ethiopia. Risk Manag 13, 247–263 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/rm.2011.17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/rm.2011.17