An assessment of the causes of malnutrition in Ethiopia: A ...

Intermediate means of transport such as donkey carts, are not common and programs for
promoting the use of them have had limited success.
Overall, Ethiopia’s transport system is one of the least developed in the world and is
inadequate to support an efficient agricultural production and distribution system. Road
density is the lowest in the world, with only 20 percent its land area being within 10 km of
all-weather road and 70 percent of its farms being more than a half day walk from such a
road. The classified road network (2000) covers about 33,297 km and has a density of about
0.43 km per 1000 population. The number of registered vehicles is about 105,000, mainly
used in urban areas. Motorized vehicles account for only about 20 percent of the total travel
and transport demand of the country and the remaining 80 percent depends on traditional
means of transport such as walking, head loading, back loading and the use of pack animals.
The grain marketing system in rural Ethiopia is undeveloped and post-harvest,
transport and storage facilities are rudimentary. There are marked regional differences in the
importance of the production of various grain crops, with the result that there is a complex
domestic marketing system for grains, with significant amounts of grain flowing between
regions. Price differences between the major surplus and deficit regions are large due to high
transport costs and inadequate marketing infrastructure.
Post-harvest losses of around 20-30 percent of the total grain crop occur. The need for
interventions to minimize post-harvest losses and to ensure that higher quality produce
reaches the consumer is substantial.
Reports also indicate the presence of limited knowledge of production, post-harvest
handling, and processing of horticultural products. These include absence of high yielding and
high genetic potential cultivars, inappropriate management techniques, inappropriate pest
control measures, lack of quality seed supplies, and minimal post-harvest technology. In
many areas, vegetable products are sorted, packed, and loaded unsatisfactorily. In general, the
most important part of a vegetable business is retaining quality along the marketing chain.
This is difficult to do in Ethiopia. This has a tremendous negative impact on the utilization
aspect of food security and in turn on achieving nutrition security at household level.
As indicated in the previous sub-section, Ethiopia has large livestock resources. In
spite of this large number of livestock, the economic contribution of this sub sector to the
national economy is still minimal. Dairy development in Ethiopia is largely traditional which
constitutes more than 98 percent of the production. The important problem for the dairy sub–
sector in Ethiopia is not a shortage of milk production but the inaccessibility of milk to all
potential consumers. The same is true for meat production.
3.4.7. Food prices, food security and malnutrition
Due to a heavy reliance on rain-fed production combined with erratic rainfall,
national annual grain production continues to be highly unstable. The instability of production
and the associated changes in annual supply result in considerable price movements between
years. Poor households are especially vulnerable to such instability, since they lack the
capacity to save at times of favorable prices.
Storage is needed to maintain crops in good condition for subsequent use or
marketing. One of the main reasons for doing this is to obtain better prices at non–peak
harvesting times. This is appropriate for cereals and oil crops, but not for highly perishable
crops. Depending on the year, roughly ¾ of all grain is retained on farm for home
consumption or for seed. From the reminder, farmers sell about 80 percent immediately after
harvest to generate funds to meet urgent cash needs and to avoid the high losses that are
incurred using traditional on-farm stores.
Proximity and access are the most limiting factors in the pricing and market choices
for perishable dairy and horticultural products. Many rural producers have no access to urban
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