AGRICULTURE DE-GROWTH!

Nov 6 , 2021.

The calamities the spreading civil war has brought are only mounting by the day. As escalating food prices show, one of the most perceptible is falling agricultural output as the scale of the war and displacement has increased and engulfed the country’s breadbasket. In Amhara Regional State, a loss of 14.5 million quintals of crops (13pc of annual production) is projected for the year. In two zones of Afar Regional State, constituting 14 weredas, 17,000ht  of land has already gone uncultivated as over half a million people were displaced, according to government sources.

Officials of the Ministry of Agriculture attribute the loss of crops to widespread looting of agricultural inputs, harvested products, and the inability of farmers to tend to their farmlands as they are displaced. It is no better in Tigray Regional State, where there is no information about agriculture output. The region covers six percent of the annual national grain production. Together with the Amhara region, the two states produce a third of all crop output, particularly teff, a staple grain. The consequences of this on the economy will be devastating as agriculture accounts for over a third of gross domestic product (GDP). The civil war grinds down both industry and service sectors, but food insecurity will exasperate it much further as it employs two-third of the labour force and accounts for up to 80pc of all export revenues in some years.

The humanitarian consequences of the ongoing war are a significant decline in agricultural output, resulting in starvation, malnutrition and a high cost of living.

PUBLISHED ON Nov 06,2021 [ VOL 22 , NO 1123]