Ethiopia Data Book

Last update: August 15, 2024

This page contains information about some of the data available in the FEWS NET Data Explorer (FDE) for Ethiopia. This is not a comprehensive guide.

For information about using the filters and fields for specific domains in the FDE, see Choose a Data Domain.

Summary table

Country food security context

Statistical reporting units

The administrative hierarchy is generally used as the principal statistical reporting unit. 

Administrative (admin) units are the geographical areas into which a country is divided. FEWS NET uses the following terminology: National boundary = admin 0, First sub-national division = admin 1 (e.g., states in the United States), Second sub-national division = admin 2 (e.g., counties in the United States), and so on.

The country is currently composed of:

• Admin 1: Regions or regional states.

  • Two chartered cities, Addis Abeba and Dire Dawa, are also treated as regions.

• Admin 2: Zone, formerly referred to as awraja.  The number of zones varies over time.  Some regions have no zones, while Somali Region has nearly 20.

• Admin 3: Woreda.

• Special Zones: Some admin 2 and 3 units are Special, which means that they function at the next higher admin level to the one they nominally belong to. A Special Woreda, for example, has many, maybe not all, of the functions of a Zone, and a Special Zone has some of the independence of a region.

Notes on names:

• There are two North Shewa woredas, one in the Amhara Region and one in the Oromia Region.

• There is a South West Shewa zone in the Oromia Region.

• There is an Oromia Zone in the Amhara Region.

• In the 1990s, Moyale is sometimes identified as an awraja, or zone. But its status after that seems to be fairly cloudy. Note also that there are maybe 4 entities named “Moyale”: a district/woreda in Oromia, a woreda in Somali, a town in Ethiopia (maybe a district as well), and a larger town in Kenya right on the border that is the best known of the 4.

• English spellings of administrative units vary with the source.  

Crop data

Explore our crop data.

View our documentation on using the Crop Domain.

Crop estimate data sources

The principal source of the crop estimates in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse is the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (CSA) and its two websites: http://www.csa.gov.et/ and https://www.statsethiopia.gov.et/ . In earlier years, both the Ministry of Agriculture and the statistics agency of the time produced crop statistics, which often diverged from each other.

Context

Ethiopian seasonal crop statistics are generally the product of two sets of surveys, one focusing on the meher and one on the belg. Each is often described in a long-running set of publications, copies of most of which are found in the FEWS NET FDW supporting documents. In years of Agriculture Census (e.g. 2003), annual surveys may not be carried out.

Crop reporting for some areas occurs at the admin 1 level only.  The most common case is reporting at the admin 2 level.  Admin 3s in the Special Zone category also report crop production separately from the admin 2 entities they are found in.

There are several annual administrative boundary sets that were in official use during the period represented by our crop data, including 1994, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2016, 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Year and season definitions

The annual Ethiopian crop calendar makes more sense if one understands it is tied to the Ethiopia Calendar (E.C.), beginning around the Gregorian September 7 and running through around September 6 of the following year. An Ethiopian year = Gregorian calendar year minus 7. Note that with only 7 years separating the two calendars, it is sometimes difficult, without additional context, to be sure which calendar year is being used.

Example: The E.C. date Sep 1, 1988 is roughly equal to Sep 18, 1995 in the Gregorian calendar.

Most official reporting notes the Ethiopian date first (noted as "E.C."), before translating it to a Gregorian date (xxxx/yyyy). Generally yyyy is the shortened Gregorian year.

The official descriptions of cropping seasons are defined by harvest, using the months Meskerem (corresponding to September in the Gregorian calendar) and Yekatit (corresponding to February in the Gregorian calendar) of the Ethiopian Calendar (Yekatit is in the next Gregorian year).

• The meher season is the country's primary crop season.

• The belg season is a secondary crop season of great importance to some areas, but it is only present in a few.

• Note that there are important seasons in the pastoral areas that differ from the above.

Crop estimation methodology

Ethiopia holds annual Agricultural Sample Surveys (AgSS) to collect basic quantitative information on the country’s agriculture that is essential for planning, policy formulation, food security, etc. The AgSS is composed of multiple components, including a Meher Season Survey. Companion reports are published separately with estimates of area and production of crops and land use area.

The following methodology information is taken from the 2021/22 Meher Season Survey:

Objective of the Survey

The specific objectives of both the Meher Season Survey and the Belg Season Survey are to estimate the total cropland area, volume of crop production and yield of crops for the meher and s are seasons in Ethiopia. The reports are based on private peasant holdings in rural areas of the country, and are compiled at the regional state and administrative zonal level.

Scope and Coverage of the Survey

The range of crops dealt with includes all cereals, pulses and oilseeds and the most commonly grown vegetables, root crops, permanent (perennial) crops and other cash crops. Holders growing at least one or more of these and/ or other crops are enumerated and data on cropland area and yield condition recorded, hence data on production of these crops acquired. The example below is generally followed in each seasonal survey.was

The 2021/22 (2014 E.C.) Annual Agricultural Sample Survey (Meher season) covered the entire rural parts of the country except Tigray region. A total of 2.609 Census Enumeration Areas (EAs) were selected. However, due to various reasons that are beyond control, in 557 EAs the survey could not be successful and hence interrupted. Thus, all in all the survey succeeded to cover 2,052 EAs  (78.65%) throughout the regions, excluding Tigray region. The Annual Agricultural Sample survey (Meher season) was conducted on the basis of 20 agricultural households selected from each EA. Regarding the ultimate sampling units, it was intended to cover a total of 52,180 agricultural households, however, 41,115 (78.797%) were actually covered by the survey.

Sampling Frame

The list containing EAs of all regions and their respective households was obtained from the most recent (4th round) population and housing census cartographic frame, and from it, the primary sampling units (EAs) were selected. The second stage sampling units, households, were selected from a fresh list of households that were prepared for each EA at the beginning of the survey.

Sample Design

In order to select the sample, a stratified two-stage cluster sample design was implemented. Census enumeration areas (EAs) were taken to be the primary sampling units (PSUs)  and the secondary sampling units (SSUs) were agricultural households. The sample size for each agricultural sample survey is determined by taking into account both the required level of precision for the most important estimates within each domain and the amount of resources allocated to the survey. In order to reduce non-sampling errors, manageability of the survey in terms of quality and operational control is also considered.

All administrative zones in each regional state were taken to be the domain of estimation for which major findings of the survey are reported.

Selection Scheme

Enumeration areas from each stratum are selected systematically using probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling technique; size being number of agricultural households. From the fresh list of households prepared at the beginning of the survey, 20 agricultural households within each sample EA were selected by systemic random sampling technique. 

Estimation procedure for totals, ratios, sampling error and the measurement of precision of estimates, standard errors and coefficients of variation (CV) are given in Appendix-I and II respectively. Distribution of sampling units (sampled and covered EAs and households) by stratum is also presented in Appendix-III.

Organization of field work

On average one supervisor is assigned to three enumeration areas for supervision of data collection operation. All the thousands of enumerators are supplied with the necessary survey equipment (GPS-equipped tablets, solar battery chargers, kitchen balance scales, etc.) after the completion of the training to ensure the smooth operation of the survey.

Method of data collection

Agricultural data for the year is collected from the entire rural small-holding households by interviewing the selected agricultural holders and physically measuring their land plots/parcels and crop cut experiments to obtain data on cropland area, yields and other items of interest.

The data obtained are recorded and transferred in various forms designed for this purpose using Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) or tablets technology data collection method. Instruments like GPS-equipped tablets, kitchen balance, scientific calculators, GPS gadgets and others are used during data collection for a timely and smooth acquisition of accurate data. The procedures for measuring area under crop and area of non-crop fields operated by the agricultural holders are performed for the 20 selected households from each sampled EA or sample cluster.

Concepts and definitions

Standard concepts and definitions are used in the survey help to maintain consistent enumeration and measurement of variables of interest. To achieve this, CSA communicates concepts and definitions to the field staff through training and instruction manuals. The concepts and definitions used include the followinge.

Enumeration Area (E.A): An enumeration area in the rural parts of the country is a locality that is in most of the cases less than and only in some cases equal to a farmers’ association in geographical area and usually consists of 150-200 households

Household: A household may be either: a) A one person household, that is a person who makes provisions for his own living with out combining with any other person to form part of a multi- person household or b)  A multi-person household, that is, a group of two or more persons who live together and make common provisions for food and other essentials of living. The persons in the group may pool their incomes and have a common budget to a greater or lesser extent. They may be related or unrelated persons or a combination of both. These persons are taken as members of the household.

Agriculture: The growing of crops and/or raising of animals for own consumption and /or sale.

Agricultural Household: A household is considered an agricultural household when at least one member of the household is engaged in growing crops and/or raising livestock in private or in combination with others.

Holding: A holding is all the land and /or livestock kept, which is used wholly or partly for agricultural production and is operated as one legal entity by one person alone, or with others without regard to management, organization, size or location.

Parcel: A parcel of holding is any piece of land entirely surrounded by land and/or water and/or road and/or forest etc. which is not part of the holding. It may consist of one or more cadastral units, plots or fields adjacent to each other.

Field: A field is defined as any plot of land which is a parcel or part of a parcel under the same or mixed crops or any other form of private holding.

Crop: Includes cereals, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, root crops, fruits coffee, Enset, Chat, hops, sugarcane, cotton, tobacco, etc produced for food, making drinks, stimulation and making fabrics or clothing.

Crop Production: The process of growing and harvesting of the above crops for own consumption and/or sale.

Temporary/Annual Crops: Annual/temporary crops are crops, which are grown in less than a year’s time, sometimes only a few months with an objective to sow or replant again for additional production following the current harvest. Continuously grown crops planted in rotation are also considered as temporary crops since each is harvested and destroyed by ploughing in preparation for each successive crop.

Permanent Crops: Crops, which are grown and occupy land for a long period of time, not requiring replanting for several years after each harvest, are considered as permanent crops. All fruit trees (i.e. oranges, mandarin, bananas, etc) and trees for beverages (i.e. coffee, tea, Gesho, etc) are considered permanent crops but meadows and pastures are excluded.

Note:

1. The cropland area and production estimates designated by “*” in all tables means they could not be reported because of a high coefficient of variation (i.e. less reliable estimates). However, they are consolidated in the total estimates.

2. In all tables “-” indicates not reported or no data.