In rural Ethiopia, food security is affected by a combination of socio-economic factors and increasing fragility of local ecosystems. Environmental degradation in its various forms, erosion and deforestation in particular, together with increasing population pressure, has led to a drastic decline in agricultural productivity and has caused serious disturbance of natural ecosystems. The forest cover has been reduced from an estimated 30-40 percent in 1900 to lower than 3 percent in 2000. Some 1,5 billion Tons of topsoil are eroded every year jeopardizing current and future productivity of rural lands. This photo essay illustrates a World Food Program project to improve food security in the most food insecure areas throughout Ethiopia through conservation and development of agricultural lands.
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