The Nexus between Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in Ethiopia

This paper focuses mainly on assessing the food security-agriculture-climate change nexus and provides multidisciplinary scientific assessment and recommendations for sustainable agro ecological solutions in the quest of humanity to sustainable development. While agriculture tend to support the overwhelming majority of the population in every part of Africa in general and in Ethiopia in particular, climate change in itself will very likely affect four key dimensions of the food security including availability, accessibility, utilization and sustainability of the food, due to close linkage between food and water security and climate change. The impacts of climate change and increases in climate variability on agricultural systems and natural-resource-dependent households, as well as on food security and the future vulnerability of already hungry people in Ethiopia and of course in most of the developing countries in Africa, are highlighted in the paper. It is also worth mentioning that, the role of climate-smart agriculture can be used for mitigating and adapting the impacts of projected climate change. CSA brings together practices, policies and institutions that are not necessarily new but are used in the context of climatic changes. Furthermore, it addresses challenges faced by triple interplay of agriculture, food security and climate change simultaneously and holistically.This paper focuses mainly on assessing the food security-agriculture-climate change nexus and provides multidisciplinary scientific assessment and recommendations for sustainable agro ecological solutions in the quest of humanity to sustainable development. While agriculture tend to support the overwhelming majority of the population in every part of Africa in general and in Ethiopia in particular, climate change in itself will very likely affect four key dimensions of the food security including availability, accessibility, utilization and sustainability of the food, due to close linkage between food and water security and climate change. The impacts of climate change and increases in climate variability on agricultural systems and natural-resource-dependent households, as well as on food security and the future vulnerability of already hungry people in Ethiopia and of course in most of the developing countries in Africa, are highlighted in the paper. It is also worth mentioning that, the role of climate-smart agriculture can be used for mitigating and adapting the impacts of projected climate change. CSA brings together practices, policies and institutions that are not necessarily new but are used in the context of climatic changes. Furthermore, it addresses challenges faced by triple interplay of agriculture, food security and climate change simultaneously and holistically.

Keywords:

Climate Smart Agriculture , Food Security , Climate Change , Environment , Ethiopia