Fourth Congress of the Association of African Historians

Referring attainable security on food, largely demands a suitable & timely oriented economic management schemes. Besides professional competency dynamic and continuous appraisal of multi sector activities are the backbone for stable economic development. 

Ethiopian societal development stage being more to the agrarian zone and adopting nature oriented culture of activities, the correspondingly under developed technological / scientific adaptations & retarded socio- economic attitudes all aggravate the challenge of confrontation and management of sector economic activity I.e., food security. With this regard, development of sustainable security would be functions of generation times. 

As a current economic move could not be imagined independently, rapid schemes referred with the world must be designed. In view of this, we might have seen that the government has set certain schemes that are mostly challenged for implementations.

In my opinion prior to planning & implementation, the handler should grasp the basic philosophy behind the settings that help for participatory activities and cleared the blurred images on the destinations.

In Ethiopian perspective, the schemes to be developed definitely would have a bit complex picture; as they should consist conditions of the developed & dynamic global pressure and the under developed economic culture.

Finally, lest for untimely conditions to exhaust the detail identification of professionally competent and progressive development thought pioneers that can manage the shemes are mandatory for Ethiopia. The usual trend of assigning leaders largely for their elderliness must be revised seriously. If not for generalization, most Ethiopian current elders have elapsed their strength for job through the passive economic system of the Derge regime. So, how can one imagine for entrepreneur's attitude from this condition?

My last but not least opinion, for the support of this scheme considering continual & sustainable move would be revisions of higher education curriculums in the context of Ethiopian current economic conditions.

Integrating this all through fair governance & management might flings a bright scenario for attainment of food security in contrast to our current subsistence & opportunistic records.

Zelalem Zemede, Equatorial Business Group (EBG)

Let me say that I find the comments and debate on this site interesting and let me add a little to it. At the risk of being haste, let me comment on the attainability of food security in Ethiopia.

Famine in Ethiopia has been in existence periodically for several centuries according to certain book I read. That doesn't mean that we should accept it. Food security is achievable but it would take years to reach that stage I am afraid.

Let me cite an example many people know about already. According to an article published in the Economist several years ago, famine in Ethiopia is caused mainly by poverty. As an example, the magazine cited that at that time while there was drought in California, USA, for several years, it didn't cause famine in that state. The reason given was (the obvious) USA being a wealthy country and Ethiopia not.

The remedy is, as has been said many times before and as many of you already know could be solved through many approaches.

To quote a few:

-instead of relying on rain fed agriculture, to irrigate the many rivers the country has.

- investment in the economy. Encourage entrepreneurship.

- education, education & education. Provide skilled manpower for the many business that would be flourishing.

- Apply technology / engineering solutions for advancement of the country.

Let me comment a little on the engineering part. Although the state, wealthy individuals could be patrons for engineering, these aren't of much relevance due to limited resources. But there are many individuals who have a little amount saved up which they could use to form share companies. Such form of organization could mobilize a lot of individuals (domestic and foreign) and could accelerate the economic growth.

Engineering for profit is a common practice in industrialized countries. They use engineering to make profits for companies which in turn helps the country accumulate wealth. To cut things short, by identifying problems in processes or any given situation, solutions could be created  by coming up with efficient ways of doing things, for those practicing engineering wealth could be created and accumulated.

I also support the recent measure being undertaken by the government to alleviate food insecurity. Insuring food insecure people is a good idea that may work. If 85 % percent of the population is dependant on agriculture for their livelihood which makes them about 60 million, they could support 5 million amongst themselves who are food insecure at any given year. That is about a 10:1 ratio. Even though I am not an expert in insurance matters, I think the ratio is sustainable. It could be seen as an experiment. It is one hope that could work.