Smallholder Farmers Strive to Support Relief Efforts in Ethiopia

ECO-opia

 

United States Department of State (Washington, DC)

 

By Alex Pavlovic, 18 June 2013

This story originally appeared in the May/June 2013 edition of Frontlines, an online publication of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Washington — In Ethiopia, smallholder farmers grow 94 percent of that country’s maize–a crop deemed crucial to Ethiopian food security. Maize has tremendous income-generating potential in Ethiopia, but only half of the country’s farmers grow maize as a cash crop. Most smallholders lack the critical access to finance, improved inputs and markets that are required to transition from subsistence farming to commercial maize production and marketing. However, with USAID support under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, this transition is becoming a reality for more than 30,000 smallholder farmers.

Late in 2012, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) agreed to buy more than 28,000 metric tons of…

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