What's New

Agriculture, much of it rain-fed, provides the main source of livelihoods in rural communities in Ethiopia. Drought has long been a challenge for Ethiopia’s farmers, but rural communities are facing new adverse effects due to climate change. A new study published in Agriculture & Food Security investigates how smallholder farmers perceive climate change, what adaptation practices they use, and what factors influence farmers’ adaptation decisions.

A recent working paper from IFPRI’s Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP) discusses how public policies, specifically those related to social protection interventions, may induce changes in household size or structure and how, in turn, these possibly unintended changes may impact the welfare consequences of the policies themselves.

South and East Africa continue to grapple with an invasion of fall armyworm (FAW) invasion. This pest, never seen on the continent until 2016, is native to the US, and it remains unclear how it was first introduced to Africa. Prolonged dry spells and heavy rains are being blamed for the prevalence of the pest, as these conditions seem to provide a thriving breeding ground.

Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), which combines a public works program with unconditional cash and food transfers, is one of the largest safety net programs for household food security in Africa. But does it actually improve childhood nutrition in the country? A recent project paper from IFPRI’s Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP) explores this question and finds no evidence that the PSNP reduces chronic undernutrition in preschool-aged children; this finding could be the result of confounding environment, social, or economic factors that need to be addressed.

Africa south of the Sahara is the only developing region in the world where the number of people living below the poverty line continues to rise.  Since agriculture contributes substantially to the economy in this region, spurring agricultural growth is crucial to reducing poverty. But while improved technology has been the driving factor in increased agricultural production growth in other developing areas, in Africa south of the Sahara, growth has been extensive rather than intensive, which will not be sustainable over the long term.