Food Security

Potato is important to food security and a cash crop in Ethiopia with high potential to improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers, who account for 83% of the total population and hold 95% of agricultural land.

Irish potatoes have prevented another major humanitarian food crisis in one of the poorest and most remote parts of Ethiopia, according to aid organization Concern Worldwide.

La inocuidad alimentaria se perfila como un desafío internacional para evitar 420.000 muertes y 600 millones de casos de enfermedades al año en el mundo.

Dessie Zuria is one of the most critically food insecure districts in Ethiopia. High altitude forced farmers to grow a single staple – barley. However, the previously unknown potato is helping to transform the lives of thousands of the poorest farmers.

Semagn-Asredie Kolech, a Cornell doctoral candidate in the field of horticulture, studies the potato and bridges the tradition of Ethiopian farming with the modernity of agricultural science.