Famine Risk Functions at the Village Level

Abstract

My PLS article, “Risk Factors and Predictability of Famine in Ethiopia” (February, 1991), focused on one nation's experience with the complicated phenomenon of famine, but it suggested that microstudies were needed to investigate more fully those groups of people within a nation who are vulnerable to famine's ravages (Vestal, 1991). Alemneh Dejene's book is such an investigation based on field work that involved interviews with peasant heads of households, survey questionnaires, participant observation, and case studies of villages and families in Wollo Region and in resettlement sites (for settlers from Wollo) in Illubabor and Keffa in 1987-89. His village level data that identify local, place specific processes that fuel environmental degradation are a welcome addition to famine literature.