Interviews – Ato Abadi, Head of Kalu Woreda, Amhara Region

“This Woreda has not been fully food secure for the past ten years. The Kalu Woreda has received food aid every single year for the past ten years and more than 50 % of all the Kalu population is in need of food assistance from time to time.

I blame this on three factors:

1-      Lack of rain and erratic rainfall

2-      The topography is bad; the hills are steep and hard to cultivate

3-      This place is very prone to pest outbreaks

In 1999 the government established a Food Security Office here in Kalu to try and address the problem, but there is not even enough emergency food coming in to feed all the people who need aid.”