Why does food insecurity persist in Ethiopia? Trends, challenges and prospects of food security in Ethiopia

This paper seeks an answer to why does food insecurity persists in Ethiopia with extensive review of literature? Nearly, one billion people globally are food insecure and food security challenges are widespread in the developing countries. Ethiopia has been renowned as a country of famine and food insecurity. During the period between 1958 and 1977 over 25 million people were affected, from 1974 to 1991, it was wracked by political instability, war, famine, and economic decline. Since1991, the country has shown commitment to achieve food security. As a result, there has been a reduction of food insecure people from 52 to 30% and the proportion of people living below the nationally defined poverty line from 44% in 2005 to 29.6% in 2011 although food insecurity remains a big challenge. The structural challenges that drive food insecurity are drought and low productivity due to limited use of agricultural technology. Macro-economic challenges like alarming food prices and unemployment determine the prospect of food security. Therefore, there is an urgent need to transform access to agricultural technology by farmers and employment opportunity. Finally, it was argued here that the government should invest on food to stabilize price and safeguard the poor. Key words: Drought, food aid, famine, food price, food security, malnutrition.