The effects of drought on human nutrition in an Ethiopian province

In mid 1974 the authors conducted a survey of Harerghe Province, Ethiopia in order to verify reports of serious effects of drought six months earlier. Information was obtained on anthropometric nutritional status, mortality, livestock, and market prices from a random sample of 62 villages in four ecological zones - the highlands, the northern and southern rangelands and an intermediate zone of mixed economy. The rangelands and intermediate areas had experienced heavy human and livestock losses during the drought but this had not occurred in the highlands. Although a high prevalence of malnutrition was found in every area studied, the geographical and height distribution of malnutrition within population groups suggested that this could only be clearly attributed to the effects of unusual food shortage in one part of the southern rangelands.