Sir, Regrettably, the effects of climate change have brought severe drought to parts of Ethiopia in recent months and we welcome the assistance given by the international community to help us to address hardship among our people. However, your report (“Ethiopia — another famine, another avoidable disaster”, (Aug 20) does not help to address these issues. Attributing the current drought to population growth and land ownership rules reflects a superficial analysis of Ethiopia’s recent history, politics and the economic realities that Ethiopia currently faces.

The Ethiopian Government is working closely with partner governments, international organisations and NGOs. Together we are striving to assist those people who have been exposed to drought and resulting food shortages by supplying food, medical supplies and animal fodder across our country. We are also working hard to improve the distribution of water, particularly in the Somali region.

Ethiopia has been distributing food from its national reserves. Like many countries we have suffered severely from sharp rises in global food prices. This has been exacerbated by the failure of the short rainy season this year, and our reserves have been significantly overstretched.

Your report distorts Ethiopia’s agricultural policy, which has been praised for its focus on improving the livelihoods of the 85 per cent of our population who live in rural areas. It is wrong to imply that the Government is abandoning the people of the Somali region when, in fact, the federal and regional governments are working together on a ten-billion-birr (£560 million) infrastructure development project to transform the region.

The land-holding system in Ethiopia should also be viewed within the context of our economic structure. Although our system does not allow the privatisation of rural land, farmers have the right of use on the land they occupy. This includes the right to lease it and to pass it to their children.There is much to be done in our country. We are very aware of the need to reduce our dependency on imported raw materials, to improve our low level of capacity utilisation and to limit population growth. Structural issues will take time to resolve and we have implemented a comprehensive agricultural policy package to address them. This is aimed at improving farming techniques and irrigation, delivering seeds and fertilisers and allocating agricultural advisers to each district. These measures are being implemented in a sustainable fashion and we sincerely hope that they will bring about a lasting solution to the food problem. Until that time all efforts are being made to address the shortages and the assistance of our international partners is appreciated.

Berhanu Kebede
Ethiopian Ambassador to the UK

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