This post originally appeared on IFPRI's Ethiopia Support Strategy Program (ESSP) blog.

The share of households consuming dairy products in Addis Ababa has dropped by 11 percentage points since the COVID-19 crisis, seemingly linked to perceived risks of consuming dairy products. All income groups declined their consumption, except for the richest quintile where the share of consuming households changed little.

This post originally appeared on IFPRI.org blog .
By: Seneshaw Tamru, Kalle Hirvonen, and Bart Minten

East Africa facing acute food insecurity as drought continues, alerts FEWS and FAO

In 2011, 44 percent of Ethiopia’s children under the age of five suffered from chronic malnutrition. [1] Reducing that number is important not only for children’s current health and well-being but also for their future health and economic productivity as adults. Thus, improving childhood nutrition by expanding children’s diets to include more nutrient-dense foods like legumes and fruits and vegetables has become an important goal for many policymakers.

As the lean season nears an end in Southern Africa , maize supplies and prices remain mixed across the region, according to the latest FEWS Net alert. In Zambia and Tanzania, maize supplies have improved slightly due to ongoing harvests; in contrast, southern Mozambique and Zimbabwe are seeing below average maize supplies due to poor 2015-2016 production levels. Maize prices are following a similar trend, with price decreases in Zambia, northern and central Mozambique, and northern Malawi and either stable or abnormally increasing prices in southern Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Since 2015, Ethiopia has been hard hit by droughts triggered by El Niño.  These droughts have reduced agricultural output and livestock production throughout the country and have driven large numbers into food insecurity. The Government of Ethiopia estimates that 10.2 million people will need emergency food aid in 2016, in addition to the 7.9 million people already covered by the country’s Productive Safety Net Programme.

One of the first steps in increasing smallholder farmers’ market access is ensuring that rural areas have adequate transportation infrastructure to physically move crops from farms to markets. Improved rural roads can reduce transportation costs and the cost of agricultural inputs, thus increasing agricultural productivity; roads can also help integrate producers into more lucrative national and regional markets, leading to greater trade and reducing price shocks caused by local conditions.

Focusing on agricultural growth, particularly that of smallholder farmers, can help countries in Africa south of the Sahara achieve broader economic and development objectives, including poverty reduction, says a new open-access book prepared by the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) and published by Oxford Press.

FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning Systems (GIEWS) has released several new country briefs for Africa south of the Sahara. This series of briefs provides an overview of the food security situation in monitored countries, focusing on the current agricultural season, harvests prospects for staple food crops and livestock, estimates and forecasts of cereal production, and food price and food policy trends.

Ethiopia continues to face increased food insecurity, despite heavy rains in April that have improved prospects for the 2016 Belg harvest, according to the latest regional alert from FEWS Net.