The poverty-reduction strategy adopted by Ethiopia seeks to achieve growth through the commercialisation of smallholder agriculture. Commercialisation of agriculture is also a core research theme of the Future Agricultures Consortium. The empirical research reported in this paper focuses smallholders, that are farming households, who are established growers of highly marketable crops, in areas already well-linked to markets. Two commodities were selected for the study: coffee and tef. Both are important to the national economy, and both are grown and marketed by millions of smallholders. The two commodities have both similar and contrasting characteristics. Both are labour-intensive crops with seasonal labour-demand peaks, met partly by migrant workers. Both are produced primarily by smallholders (although there are also a few large enterprises growing coffee). Both commodities command export as well as domestic markets, although tef has been primarily a domestic product in the past while coffee is a major national export. Most obviously, tef is both a food and a cash crop, and is therefore fungible either for farm consumption or sale. Coffee, by contrast, is a non-food crop grown primarily for the market. The study on coffee is reported separately. The level of commercialisation in the study areas is far higher than the national average. The average farmer sold almost half (49.7%) of his or her crop production (in value terms). The degree of commercialisation, however, differs widely across sampled households, which implies a correspondingly wide variation in the potential and constraints for further commercialisation. Therefore, any agricultural commercialisation strategy should be customized for different groups of farmers. Despite the relatively high degree of market orientation in the study areas, the size of market (per seller) is very thin. The volume of trade is constrained by low per capita production. The size of farmland owned and cultivated is very important to farmers\' participation in output markets. Similarly, both the total value of farm production and the proportion of land allocated to tef (the major cash crop) had a positive and significant impact on a household\'s degree of market participation, measured in terms of gross income from crop sales. On the other hand, the effect of household self-sufficiency in food (measured as the percentage of consumption that is self-produced) was negative. This implies that households who depend more on the market for their food access also participate more in output markets. In other words, their participation in food markets is high both as sellers and buyers. The findings of this study broadly support the PASDEP\'s dual strategy of increasing agricultural commercialisation while promoting non-farm economic growth. Higher levels of household commercialisation appear to be associated with better standards of welfare (including food consumption), confirming that smallholders can benefit directly from greater engagement with markets. At the same time, a minority of farmers even in these relatively commercialised areas are leading marginal and largely subsistence-oriented farming livelihoods, supplementing their production income through renting out land. Combined with the finding that higher non-farm incomes are associated with lower agricultural commercialisation, this underlines the importance of developing sources of non-farm employment alongside intensification of agriculture, in order to provide favourable conditions of exit from farming for some less productive farmers and landless youth. The suggested direction of change is towards a more diversified rural economy, aiming for higher returns from agriculture alongside a wider range of local income and livelihood options. Ethiopian Journal of Economics Vol. 16 (1) 2007: pp. 57-88

The paradox facing agricultural policy in Ethiopia was neatly encapsulated in a statement by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in 2000: “The agricultural sector remains our Achilles heel and source of vulnerability. ... Nonetheless, we remain convinced that agricultural-based development remains the only source of hope for Ethiopia.” The reality is that most Ethiopians continue to struggle to make their living from smallholder farming, despite low returns, high risks, and the evident inability of agriculture to provide even a reliable subsistence income, let alone a ‘take-off’ to poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth. Policy-makers and analysts, both national and expatriate, have vacillated between arguing for increased investment in smallholder farming, commercialising agriculture, or abandoning unviable smallholder agriculture by promoting diversifi cation or urbanisation instead. It is often remarked that, if Ethiopia can solve the profound challenges facing its agriculture sector, the lessons will be applicable in many other parts of Africa.

This paper reflects on an experience of integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches to sampling, data collection, data types, and analysis in a study of destitution in Ethiopia. It focuses on three “qualitative” elements within the household questionnaire: (1) a holistic self-assessment of household dependence; (2) household-level recall questions to estimate trends in the absence of time-series data; and (3) proportional piling (a quantification technique widely used in participatory fieldwork) to estimate income diversification. The paper concludes that the pragmatic combination of qualitative and quantitative elements was successful, and indeed essential, in addressing the study’s policy-oriented research questions: however, tensions and trade-offs remain.

According to several studies, poverty in rural Ethiopia has fallen significantly since the early 1990s, thanks to improved governance and economic liberalisation policies. This paper presents several arguments that challenge this view. The first questions the methodological foundations of the data from which these positive trends are derived we argue that the original sampling frame was too small and unrepresentative to provide a basis for extrapolating national poverty levels or trends. The second argument questions the conceptual underpinnings of these studies: poverty estimates based on levels of current consumption jail to allow for non-income dimensions of wellbeing, nor for confounding factors such as seasonality, annual rainfall and food aid receipts. The third strand considers alternative sources of data on changes in wellbeing in Ethiopia: recent qualitative studies report that the poor perceive themselves as poorer and more vulnerable than poverty headcount figures suggest. Finally, we report findings from our own survey in chronically poor and historically famine-prone Wollo. First, a significant proportion of households in the study area are destitute destitution being defined as inability to meet basic needs, lack of key productive assets, and dependence on transfers. Secondly, the numbers of destitute people, and of people vulnerable to becoming destitute, have increased over the past ten years. Thirdly the crisis of livelihoods underlying this trend is affecting entire communities - the dominant pattern is an aggregate downward shift, rather than. stratification - and the decline of wealthier households is exacerbating the vulnerability of the poorest. These findings cast serious doubts on generalisations about poverty trends in Ethiopia. At the very least, national-level data need to be disaggregated improving national trends may conceal pockets of entrenched poverty and a deepening livelihoods crisis in parts of rural Ethiopia.

In this study a simple meal was prepared from raw chicken and lettuce in a manner which incorporated examples of common food hygiene malpractice. Prior to meal preparation, the chicken was inoculated with varying levels of Salmonella Typhimurium. The spread of microbial contamination (total viable counts, Enterobacteraceae counts and the presence of Salmonella species) from the chicken to sites in the kitchen was traced. Results indicate how easily bacterial contaminants from food may be spread around a kitchen. Levels of contamination on foods ready for consumption and in areas considered clean after washing up and wiping surfaces are established. These indicate that contaminants are unlikely to be removed from some sites unless cleaning procedures are rigorous.

Conventional approaches to poverty assessment are dominated by narrow measures of current household income, expenditure and consumption. These methodologies fail to capture more complex, multi- dimensional and dynamic realities of chronic poverty, such as asset erosion and livelihood vulnerability. This paper proposes an alternative measure of severe poverty or destitution, defined in terms of subsistence needs, livelihood resources and dependence on transfers. Fieldwork from northern Ethiopia confirms the resonance of this holistic approach with local perceptions. Destitute households in Wollo face constrained access to land, labour, livestock, social networks and transfers, and are more vulnerable to erratic weather and other shocks. The crisis of livelihoods affects whole communities: better-off households are no longer able to assist the poorest, and the majority of households are themselves at risk of destitution. This paper concludes that a broad range of policy interventions is needed to address both the household and community levels of chronic poverty.

It is generally believed that poverty in rural Ethiopia has fallen significantly since the early 1990s, thanks to improved governance and economic liberalisation policies. This paper presents several arguments that challenge this view. The first questions the methodological foundations of the panel survey data from which these positive trends are derived: we argue that the original sampling frame was so small and unrepresentative that there is no basis for extrapolating national poverty rates and trends from the six case study villages. The second argument questions the conceptual approach preferred by these studies: poverty estimates based on levels of current consumption are heavily determined in Ethiopia by seasonality, annual rainfall and food aid receipts. The third strand considers alternative sources of data on changes in well-being in Ethiopia: recent qualitative studies report that the poor perceive themselves as poorer and more vulnerable than ‘official’ poverty headcount figures suggest. Finally, we report findings from our own survey in the chronically poor and historically famineprone region formerly known as Wollo. Firstly, a significant proportion of households in the study area are destitute – destitution being defined as inability to meet basic needs, lack of key productive assets, and dependence on transfers. Secondly, the numbers of destitute people, and of people vulnerable to becoming destitute, have increased over the past ten years. Thirdly, the crisis of livelihoods underlying this trend is affecting entire communities – the dominant pattern is an aggregate downward shift, rather than stratification – and the decline of wealthier households is exacerbating the vulnerability of the poorest. These findings cast serious doubts on generalisations about poverty trends in Ethiopia. At the very least, national-level data need to be disaggregated: improving national trends may conceal pockets of entrenched poverty and a deepening livelihoods crisis in parts of rural Ethiopia.

The majority of food poisoning cases occur in the domestic environment as a result of inadequate hygiene practices. The possibility of food safety errors may be increased in domestic kitchens that are shared. However, there is very little information concerning the hygiene of these kitchens. This study investigates the microbial load of key sites in six student communal kitchens. In addition, hygiene was evaluated visually and questionnaires were used to assess the hygiene practices of the kitchen users. Results show that visual hygiene assessments are not a good indicator of microbial contamination, which, in this study, reveal poor levels of hygiene. Food safety errors were commonly made by users of the kitchens and their food hygiene practices suggest limited food safety knowledge and/or an absence of feelings of responsibility for the hygiene standard of the kitchen.

AbstractThe killing or removal of microbes from the hands is a critical factor in food safety as many studies have shown the hands to be both an important source of microbes and powerful agents of cross‐contamination in hospital and domestic situations. In response to this concern, a number of novel hand‐washing products have appeared on the market. These products contain anti‐microbial agents and claim to be more effective at removing bacteria than soap bars and conventional liquid soaps. This study attempts to test these claims by comparing the effectiveness of a conventional soap bar, a conventional liquid soap and an anti‐microbial liquid soap containing triclosan. In vitro tests demonstrate that the anti‐microbial liquid soap is more effective than conventional liquid soaps in reducing the viability of six bacterial species and that this effect is both time and dose dependent. However, when the three soaps were compared for their ability to reduce microbial counts on the hands no differences were observed between the three products. For all three soaps, counts after washing sometimes went up and sometimes down when compared with pre‐wash counts. This was the case both when the soaps were used ‘normally’– that is, with great variation in the time taken, water and soap volumes used and method of washing and after a standardized, rigorous wash recommended in clinical situations. Furthermore, reduction in microbial counts from hands contaminated by handling raw meat was no greater for the anti‐microbial than for the conventional liquid soap.