The Role of Natural Resources for Sustaining Food Security in Ethiopia: A Review

Abstract

Natural resources can generate and sustain growth, thereby reducing poverty as well as maintain natural environment balance in addition to offering life supporting services for all organisms living on the planet. Well managed natural resources are expected to contribute to income and food security improvement in rural populations. However, food insecurity is the main obstacle to natural resource management in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and it is too challenging to achieve sustainable natural resource management and food security. Deteriorating soils and rapid extraction of natural resources is increasing in developing countries resulting in decreased food security. Thus, food insecurity remains high in most of SSA and natural resource management is marginalized, and gets less attention in development strategies. That insecurity is made even more serious due to degradation linked to escalated scarcity of natural resources. Natural resource management and food security is linked together. Developing countries, including sub-Saharan Africa, suffer from food insecurity. Sustainable use of natural resources means that the communities are enabled to plan and implement improvement measures which essentially (have to) take place at the community level. Such community based natural resource management will, however, only work and spread if it is accompanied and backed up by suitable political reforms at national and regional levels. Keywords: Food security, natural resource, endowment, poverty trap, constraints DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/97-02 Publication date: May 31 st 2020