Despite lush fields, Ethiopia in famine
Even though prime minister claims 'spectacular success in agriculture,' 10 million people will need emergency assistance to survive until the harvest in September
By Edmund Sanders | Tribune Newspapers
August 8, 2008
AJEE, Ethiopia — They call it the green hunger.
Four-foot cornstalks sprout from rain-soaked earth, and wind billows fields of teff, the staple Ethiopian grain. Goats and cattle are getting fat on lush grasses — but the children are still dying.
"It's strange to see hunger when everything is so green," said Wariso Shete, 26, a southern Ethiopia farmer who recently buried his 3-year-old son. "But there is no food. The boy just starved."
Once again, images of emaciated children are emerging from this Horn of Africa nation, rekindling memories of the 1984 famine that killed nearly 1 million people. This time Ethiopia has been grappling with a double whammy: drought in its breadbasket and a global food crisis that has pushed prices sky high.
Although recent rains and an influx of humanitarian aid have experts predicting the crisis might be stabilizing, nearly 10 million Ethiopians will need emergency assistance to survive until the harvest in September.
Green hungers are just one of the oddities in Ethiopia's decades-long struggle to feed itself. The country, considered the water tower of East Africa because its highlands are the primary source of the Nile, suffers chronic drought. It is Africa's second-largest corn producer but still requires hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid.
An exploding population is one cause. Others point to a socialist-leaning government, which has been slow to embrace market-based policies. And everyone agrees that international donors spend too little — less than 5 percent of all aid — on long-term development, such as irrigation, to correct underlying problems.
Leader: Programs help
In an interview, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi emphasized that the current crisis masks dramatic progress.
"This emergency is occurring in an environment of spectacular success in agriculture," he said.
Agriculture production is growing 10 percent a year, he said, and as recently as 2006, Ethiopia grew so much corn that it exported the surplus.
National pride might explain why the government initially seemed to downplay the drought, accusing the United Nations of exaggerating the number of malnourished children. Meles' exasperation with those who portray Ethiopia as desperate and needy was evident.
"I'm telling those people to go to hell," he said. "Ethiopians are not hapless."
One of the biggest problems is population growth. Ethiopia, with an estimated 80 million people, has doubled in size since the mid-1980s. Nearly 40,000 babies are born each week.
Simply put, the nation, in which 85 percent of people farm, has reached a point where it can't easily grow enough food to meet its needs. Although agricultural production has increased overall, it has declined per capita, according to the World Bank.
Even in a year without crisis, one in 10 people rely on international food aid to survive. More than 400 children die every day from malnutrition. Ethiopia is one of the few African nations with its own factory for Plumpy'nut, a peanut-based paste used to remedy acute malnutrition.
"We have not moved far enough away from the poverty line for us to have enough cushion," Meles said. "One unexpected weather event can push us over the precipice."
Some praise Ethiopia's government for its anti-poverty campaigns, which have reduced child mortality by 40 percent. New roads have fostered nationwide trade, helping agricultural markets stabilize. The government allocates 17 percent of its budget to agricultural development, nearly three times as much as its African neighbors.
But Ethiopia's state-dominated economy is also blamed for the persistent food shortages. The government controls all major industries, and there is no private ownership of land.
Under pressure from Western donors, Meles, a onetime Marxist who preaches the free market, has opened the window to private enterprise, most notably allowing flower farms to export. But economists are skeptical.
Critics skeptical
"They talk about free market, but you don't see it," said economist Befekadu Degefe, a government critic. "They see the private sector as a threat, as competition, so they try to eliminate it."
In the agricultural sector, the government controls the distribution of fertilizer and, to a lesser extent, seeds. It extends most credit and sometimes restricts sales, such as a current export ban on cereals. Though farmers are free to grow what they want, a network of 20,000 agricultural advisers keeps close tabs, also functioning as tax collectors.
"The government hand is still a little too heavy," said Glenn Anders, USAID's mission director in Ethiopia. "They look more to the Chinese model."
Farmer Mohammed Kedir, 23, dreams of the day when he can own his own plot of land. If he owned the land, Kedir said, he might experiment with more-profitable crops, and he said he'd take better care of the soil.
"But if the government can take my land at any time," he said, "what's the point of trying so hard?"
By Edmund Sanders | Tribune Newspapers
August 8, 2008
AJEE, Ethiopia — They call it the green hunger.
Four-foot cornstalks sprout from rain-soaked earth, and wind billows fields of teff, the staple Ethiopian grain. Goats and cattle are getting fat on lush grasses — but the children are still dying.
"It's strange to see hunger when everything is so green," said Wariso Shete, 26, a southern Ethiopia farmer who recently buried his 3-year-old son. "But there is no food. The boy just starved."
Once again, images of emaciated children are emerging from this Horn of Africa nation, rekindling memories of the 1984 famine that killed nearly 1 million people. This time Ethiopia has been grappling with a double whammy: drought in its breadbasket and a global food crisis that has pushed prices sky high.
Although recent rains and an influx of humanitarian aid have experts predicting the crisis might be stabilizing, nearly 10 million Ethiopians will need emergency assistance to survive until the harvest in September.
Green hungers are just one of the oddities in Ethiopia's decades-long struggle to feed itself. The country, considered the water tower of East Africa because its highlands are the primary source of the Nile, suffers chronic drought. It is Africa's second-largest corn producer but still requires hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid.
An exploding population is one cause. Others point to a socialist-leaning government, which has been slow to embrace market-based policies. And everyone agrees that international donors spend too little — less than 5 percent of all aid — on long-term development, such as irrigation, to correct underlying problems.
Leader: Programs help
In an interview, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi emphasized that the current crisis masks dramatic progress.
"This emergency is occurring in an environment of spectacular success in agriculture," he said.
Agriculture production is growing 10 percent a year, he said, and as recently as 2006, Ethiopia grew so much corn that it exported the surplus.
National pride might explain why the government initially seemed to downplay the drought, accusing the United Nations of exaggerating the number of malnourished children. Meles' exasperation with those who portray Ethiopia as desperate and needy was evident.
"I'm telling those people to go to hell," he said. "Ethiopians are not hapless."
One of the biggest problems is population growth. Ethiopia, with an estimated 80 million people, has doubled in size since the mid-1980s. Nearly 40,000 babies are born each week.
Simply put, the nation, in which 85 percent of people farm, has reached a point where it can't easily grow enough food to meet its needs. Although agricultural production has increased overall, it has declined per capita, according to the World Bank.
Even in a year without crisis, one in 10 people rely on international food aid to survive. More than 400 children die every day from malnutrition. Ethiopia is one of the few African nations with its own factory for Plumpy'nut, a peanut-based paste used to remedy acute malnutrition.
"We have not moved far enough away from the poverty line for us to have enough cushion," Meles said. "One unexpected weather event can push us over the precipice."
Some praise Ethiopia's government for its anti-poverty campaigns, which have reduced child mortality by 40 percent. New roads have fostered nationwide trade, helping agricultural markets stabilize. The government allocates 17 percent of its budget to agricultural development, nearly three times as much as its African neighbors.
But Ethiopia's state-dominated economy is also blamed for the persistent food shortages. The government controls all major industries, and there is no private ownership of land.
Under pressure from Western donors, Meles, a onetime Marxist who preaches the free market, has opened the window to private enterprise, most notably allowing flower farms to export. But economists are skeptical.
Critics skeptical
"They talk about free market, but you don't see it," said economist Befekadu Degefe, a government critic. "They see the private sector as a threat, as competition, so they try to eliminate it."
In the agricultural sector, the government controls the distribution of fertilizer and, to a lesser extent, seeds. It extends most credit and sometimes restricts sales, such as a current export ban on cereals. Though farmers are free to grow what they want, a network of 20,000 agricultural advisers keeps close tabs, also functioning as tax collectors.
"The government hand is still a little too heavy," said Glenn Anders, USAID's mission director in Ethiopia. "They look more to the Chinese model."
Farmer Mohammed Kedir, 23, dreams of the day when he can own his own plot of land. If he owned the land, Kedir said, he might experiment with more-profitable crops, and he said he'd take better care of the soil.
"But if the government can take my land at any time," he said, "what's the point of trying so hard?"
posted by Dominik @ 11:17 am
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