Since 2013, Feed the Future has worked in the following regional states: Afar; Amhara; Oromia; Sidama; Somali; Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’; Southwest Ethiopia; Tigray.
Number of people living in Ethiopia (World Bank, 2019)
Annual GDP growth; agriculture accounts for 12.7 percent of added value (World Bank, 2019)
Percentage of population living in rural Ethiopia (World Bank, 2019)
Percentage of people living in poverty in Feed the Future target regions in 2018 (GFSS ZOI Survey, 2018)
Producers using new technologies and practices with Feed the Future’s help in FY21
Number of children under 5 reached with nutrition help in FY21
Hectares tended with improved technologies or management practices with Feed the Future’s help in FY21
New private investment leveraged by Feed the Future in FY21
Despite Ethiopia’s expanding economy and potential for agriculture-led growth, challenges persist. These include: disruption from conflict spillover in the north of the country, low crop yields, lack of access to credit and land, limited use of improved seeds and fertilizers and weak connections between farms and markets. Agriculture-led economic growth, accompanied by improvements in people’s livelihoods and nutrition, can build farmers’ ability to withstand recurring shocks and provide a long-lasting solution to Ethiopia’s chronic poverty and food insecurity challenges. To achieve this, Feed the Future connects families and marginalized communities to economic opportunities, unlocks financial services and strengthens agriculture, nutrition and resilience. Feed the Future integrates agriculture and nutrition investments to enhance cognitive and physical development, increase economic productivity, strengthen resilience and advance global development. For more information, please view the Nutrition Priority Countries.
By partnering with Feed the Future, farms and firms gained access to over $16 million in financing to buy quality agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizer and to expand operations; this resulted in more than $196 million in sales in 2020.
Results from the Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain activity demonstrate significant progress, including partner smallholder producers who made $36.7 million in meat and live animal sales in 2021.
To help Ethiopia’s most vulnerable farming and pastoralist families weather various shocks, Feed the Future trained hundreds of experts in early warning systems, crop and livestock remote-sensing, market price modeling and rainfall estimating. In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Feed the Future helped to improve the coordination and emergency management skills of federal and regional institutions to strengthen emergency preparedness, response and recovery activities.
To promote nutrition – especially among Ethiopia’s women and children – Feed the Future works with government and community systems to address malnutrition, promote large-scale education and link nutrition, water, livelihood and food security efforts.
For example, Feed the Future’s nutrition work is complemented by investments in water, sanitation and hygiene, which promote sustainable water and sanitation services and optimal hygiene practices. As a result, consumption of a diverse diet increased from 31 to 72 percent among the 97,000 women engaged in Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain Activity’s nutrition-sensitive agriculture activities.
The results shown reflect data from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Peace Corps and the Department of Treasury (through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program), reported into Feed the Future’s central monitoring system for fiscal year 2020 (FY20). Impact data for poverty statistics are derived from the 2018 Feed the Future Ethiopia Population-Based Survey Report. For more information on the indicators above, please view our Feed the Future Indicator Handbook. All dollar amounts are listed in U.S. dollars
Feed the Future funds the following programs, partnerships and organizations in Ethiopia.
September 26, 2018
March 8, 2018
Current Dataset
April 2019
“The training provided by Feed the Future enabled me to produce high-quality milk, diversify products, and maintain the health and good feeding program for my cows.”
Hirut Yohannes Darare, Founder, Rut & Hut
