Improving agricultural productivity and farm level resilience to agricultural production
shocks is a critical component of reducing poverty and improving household food
security throughout the developing world, and particularly in Ethiopia which is among the
poorest countries in the world.
This paper explores how agricultural households in the Hararghe region of eastern
Ethiopia, an area rich in crop genetic diversity, but with low and variable agricultural
productivity and high rates of poverty, manage their crop genetic resources to cope with
drought, a prevalent source of agricultural production shocks. Our analysis looks at
reasons for cultivating modern varieties versus landrace crop varieties of sorghum, and
the implications for farm level resilience to drought as well as choice of coping strategy
when such shocks occur. The analysis is run using a unique dataset collected during
2002-2003 production season when eastern Ethiopia experienced a major drought with
widespread crop failure ensuing.