Abstract:
Food Security Conference 2003 was held in the' United Nations Conference Center
(UNCC), Addis Ababa, from August 13-15. Towards the end of the conference, a panel
discussion was held and the following are the major points raised.
One of the panelists, Dr. Mulat Demeke, indicated that the country is entrenched in a
quagmire of poverty and couldn't achieve sustainable development. He contrasted the dire
situation of Ethiopia with the affluence in the developed nations by saying that hunger is
alien in the latter because of their highly developed economy, whereas in this country an
average of 6 . 6 million people face hunger every year, and this year the figure has escalated to a record high of 14 million. Further, in western countries less than five percent of the whole population are engaged in agriculture and they not only feed their country but also export or give food aid to countries like ours, whereas Ethiopia which has more than 80 percent peasant population couldn’t feed itself let alone to export surplus.
