Mr Damene Darota, Ethiopia’s Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources today said that the Ministry has planned to assist about 7.9 million rural Ethiopians from absolute poverty.
In a just concluded 2016-2017 fiscal year, the Ministry evaluated major activities implemented and it declared the country’s plan to improve the economic conditions of the Ethiopians, mainly in the rural part of the country.
“Close to 6.6 million of them, who are able to engage in various economic activities, were provided with an opportunity to participate through climate conservation, irrigation development and other agricultural activities in the last six months”.
The Ministry also stated that
“The remaining 1.3 million economically deprived citizens, who are either physically disabled or older people, are receiving support from the government”
Ethiopia, as part of its Agenda for 2025, aspires to become a middle-income country. Darota noted that the plan was part of the country’s second five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) effective from 2015 to 2020.
It would be recalled that it was earlier reported that over two million animals have been lost in Ethiopia as a result of drought and about 8.5 million people, with one in twelve people, are now suffering from hunger, and of these numbers, about 3.3 million people live in the Somali Region.
