Gender, Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security in Ethiopia: A Critical Review

2020 International Journal of Research Studies in Agricultural Sciences  
Agriculture is the backbone of Ethiopia's economy and sources of export earnings. Food security, food systems, and climate change are each multifaceted topics. Their interactions are likewise complex and are affected by a wide range of environmental and socioeconomic factors. Women play a vital role in food production, food distribution, and food utilization the three components of food security; they also undertake a range of community-level activities that support agricultural development,
more » ... h as soil and water conservation, afforestation and crop domestication. Women face numerous obstacles to access productive inputs, assets and services; these obstacles not only heighten their vulnerability to food insecurity, but also considerably reduce their contribution to overall agricultural production. The objective of the review is to understand the gender-differentiated roles in agriculture and food and nutrition security in Ethiopia. Identify appropriate responses to close the gender gap in the agricultural sector in order to achieve gender equality and food security. Nutrition-specific policies directly targeting the nutritional status of women and the poor should be developed. Nutrition-sensitive policies, which target broad underlying factors including agriculture and food access, sanitation and women's empowerment. To better support food and nutritional security, policies are required to reform production mechanization and land tenure for the benefit of small-scale farmers, to reform how smallholders obtain agricultural inputs and to recognize agriculture as vehicle for investment option. Research should support women in tree domestication to improve the yields of tree foods, and seek to enhance the complementarity and stability of food production in smallholders'.
doi:10.20431/2454-6224.0602003 fatcat:eoabjzjpivh5fn2qulqrmislqm