Resource information
Agricultural and Rural Development (ARD)
is a fundamental component of Ethiopia's economic
growth and poverty reduction strategy. The agricultural
development strategy under Agriculture Development Led
Industrialization (ADLI) and Sustainable Development and
Poverty Reduction Program (SDPRP) focused on enhancing the
productive capacity of smallholder farmers, promoting crop
diversification, shifting to a market based system, ensuring
food security at the household level and strengthening
emergency responses, building up the fragile livelihoods of
pastoral communities, and increasing rural water supply
coverage. The series of policies put in place in the 1990s
included a more supportive macro-economic framework,
liberalized markets for agricultural products, and an
extension and credit-led push on seed and fertilizer.
Following the drought of 2002/03, the government increased
its focus on safety nets, and the 2006 Plan of Accelerated
and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) emphasizes
rural-urban linkages and the promotion of rural non-farm
enterprises, with continued efforts to tackle vulnerability
and food security. Promoting gender equality is a key
component of the strategy.
