Structural transformation and the agricultural food system: An introduction

Ethiopia’s agricultural sector has grown rapidly since 2000 due to a doubling in the use of modern inputs (chemical fertilizers and improved seeds), significant land expansion, increased labor use, and a 2.3 percent per year growth in total factor productivity (TFP) (Bachewe et al. 2018). At the same time, there has been a substantial spatial and structural transformation of the economy. Ethiopia’s urban population has more than doubled in the past 20 years (from 7.3 million in 1994 to 17.5 million in 2015), and nonagricultural output has grown rapidly so that the share of nonagriculture in GDP has risen from less than half in 2000 to about two-thirds today. Moreover, household welfare indicators have improved dramatically as rural poverty fell from 45 percent in 1999–2000 to 23.5 percent in 2015–2016 (Figure 1.1). Measures of malnutrition of children also improved significantly. For example, from 2000 to 2016 the child stunting rate fell from 58 percent to 38 percent while the share of children that are underweight declined from 41 percent to 24 percent over the same period (Ethiopia, CSA and ICF 2016; NPC 2017) (Figure 1.2). However, wasting only declined by 2 percent.