ABSTRACT
Improving agricultural productivity and farm level resilience to agricultural production shocks is essential to reducing poverty and improving household food security throughout the developing world, and most particularly in Ethiopia. One of the primary causes of household food insecurity in Ethiopia is the risk of agricultural production failure due to drought, resulting in reduced farm incomes and farm household food security (Devereaux 2000; Dercon 2001). Dercon estimates that the incidence of drought, together with illness and population growth resulted in a 13 percent decline in per capita consumption among adults, and a 23 percent increase in poverty in Ethiopia from 1989 to 1995 (Dercon 2001).
