Meet the FABLE Ethiopia team

The FABLE Ethiopia team is led by the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) in collaboration with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance BI-CIAT).

PSI is a government policy research think-tank established in 2018 with merger of the Ethiopian Development Research Institute and the FDRE Policy Study and Research Centre. PSI's mandate is to conduct research and policy analysis that provide evidence-based inputs for policymaking and policy implementation. The institute is engaged in the areas of macroeconomic and finance, environment and climate change, agricultural and rural development, human development and poverty, as well as governance issues.

The Alliance BI-CIAT in Ethiopia focuses on food systems transformation hubs, improving food systems through agroecology, supporting peace and security through climate change mitigation, and improving cocoa and coffee systems through innovations and partnerships.

Priorities of the Ethiopian FABLE team include agrobiodiversity, agriculture, climate change, digital inclusion, land-use system, gender inclusion, child and youth development, and employment.

Former members: Kiflu Gedefe Molla and Firew Bekele Woldeyes.

Transforming food and land-use systems in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is blessed with rich natural resources, from dense forests to highland massifs and mountain ranges, making agriculture the backbone of the country's way of life and rapid economic development. Four out of every five Ethiopians are employed in agriculture, which contributes approximately 36% to the national gross domestic product (GDP).

Despite this, recent trends are putting increasing pressure on Ethiopia's precious food and land use systems. High rates of deforestation and land degradation are threatening the natural resources on which many Ethiopians depend. Despite impressive economic growth with a GDP growth rate of nearly 10% since 2010, malnutrition continues to blight the country. In 2016, the prevalence of stunting in children under five was 38%.

At the same time, rates of obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases like "Type 2" diabetes are growing in cities, including Addis Ababa. Urbanization brings with it additional pressures, including higher consumption levels, increased pressures on the land, more complex supply chains, and infrastructure challenges.

Agriculture is a major consumer of scarce water supplies, and demand is rising rapidly. Coupled with disruption to the water cycle as a result of climate change, these stressors could further exacerbate the risk of food insecurity for the country's growing population.

Key national objectives and targets

For Ethiopia, the major focus areas for transforming food and land systems are:

• Reducing the reliance on rain-fed agriculture by developing irrigation capacity;
• Expanding agricultural mechanization services and improve the land use system;
• Enabling highly productive smallholder farmers to become investors through provision of access to additional farmlands;
• Expanding the participation of private investors in agriculture and improve the land use system and building institutional implementation capacity within the sector;
• Rendering agriculture more resilient to climate change by reducing the impacts of environmental and climatological changes affecting it.

Publications & Activities

• Kalkidan Ayele Mulatu, Wuletawu Abera, An Notenbaert, et al. Integrating Forages into Ethiopia’s Sustainable Land Management: A systematic review. Authorea. March 10, 2025.DOI: 10.22541/au.174158682.28288865/v1.
• Getaneh, Y., Nigussie, Y., Abera, W., Mulatu, K., Balcha, Y., Tibebe, D., Eshete, M., Bekele, M., Tamene, L. (2024). Chapter 5: Ethiopia. In FABLE, 2024, How to reduce agrifood systems' future hidden costs? A multi-country case study - State of the Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2024 background report (pp 127-143). SDSN,Paris.
• Getaneh, Y., Nigussie, Y., Wakeyo, M.B., Mulatu, K.A., Abera, W., Balcha, Y., Tibebe, D., Eshete, M., Hamza, T.,Tesfaye, G., and Tamene, L. (2024). FABLE Scenathon 2023 Pathways for food and land-use systems in Ethiopia.Paris: Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). 10.5281/zenodo.11546792.
• Mulatu, K. A., Nyawira, S. S., Herold, M., Carter, S., & Verchot, L. (2024). Nationally determined contributions to the 2015 Paris Agreement goals: transparency in communications from developing country Parties. Climate Policy, 24(2), 211–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2023.2285519.
• Meron Awoke Eshetae, Wuletawu Abera, Lulseged Tamene, Kalkidan Mulatu, Abonesh Tesfaye, Understanding farm typology for targeting agricultural development in mixed crop-livestock farming systems of Ethiopia, Farming System, Volume 2, Issue 3, 2024, 100088, ISSN 2949-9119, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.farsys.2024.100088..
• FABLE (2020). Pathways to Sustainable Land-Use and Food Systems. 2020 Report of the FABLE Consortium. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Laxenburg and Paris. 10.22022/ESM/12-2020.16896.. Ethiopia chapter.
• FABLE (2019). Pathways to Sustainable Land-Use and Food Systems. 2019 Report of the FABLE Consortium. Laxenburg and Paris: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Pathway for Ethiopia.