Rural destitution is a growing phenomenon in Ethiopia, closely associated with population growth, resource scarcity, crop failure and famine. Conducted in a woina dega community in the Wag Hamra zone and a kola community in South Wello in the Ethiopian highlands, this research paper attempts to further understanding about destitution.

The food market in Ethiopia has recently been marked by uncharacteristically high prices, a situation that has paralleled conditions in the rest of the world. The causes of escalating food prices in Ethiopia are somewhat specific to it. These include high inflation levels and stagnating food production and supply in relation to increasing demand due to population growth and possibly rising incomes among certain sections of the population. Although high food prices may have raised the incomes of some food producers in the country, they have exacerbated food shortages among food-deficit rural...