ABSTRACT
Agriculture has been the backbone of the Ethiopian economy for centuries and contributes nearly 85 percent of the employment, 50 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings (Abate, 2006 ; Rashid, 2010 ). Furthermore, about 90 percent of the agricultural output comes from smallholder farms characterized by low-input and low-output production farming systems with heavy dependence on rainfall (Devereux, 2000 ; Abebaw et al ., 2010 ). The erratic nature of rainfall, prolonged droughts and dry spells coupled with poor agricultural practices, has degraded the agricultural land resulting in poor soils and low productivity (Abebaw et al ., 2010 ). On top of this, political instability and inappropriate past government policies, combined with limited availability and use of modern technology inputs, has weakened the agricultural sector leading to serious food insecurity in the country (Amsalu, 2012 ). Over the past four decades, Ethiopia has been hit by four major famines in 1971-75, 1984-85, 1999-2000 and 2002-03 that have cost the lives of more than a million people (van der Veen and Gebrehiwot, 2011 ).
