Food Aid Dependency in Northeastern Ethiopia: Myth or Reality?

SummaryFood aid dependency among Ethiopian farmers frequently is claimed with serious policy impacts. This article explores this assertion with reference to South Wollo, Ethiopia, one of the country’s largest recipients of food aid. It uses household economic and ethnographic data from the 1999–2000 and 2002–03 droughts when food aid imports were very high. By examining patterns of food aid distribution and resource allocation among groups of food aid recipients and non-recipients, the article suggests that food aid has not encouraged dependency-like behaviors. It suggests that few farmers would be foolhardy enough to significantly alter their actions, since food aid delivery is too uncertain and poorly timed.