Famines in Ethiopia

Subjectively the Economy of Ethiopia was based on subsistence agriculture, with an aristocracy that consumed the surplus. Due to a number of causes, the peasants lacked incentives to either improve production or to store their excess harvest; as a result, they lived from harvest to harvest.

Despite the extensive modernization of Ethiopia in the last 120 years, as of 2016, about 80% of the population are peasants who still live from harvest to harvest, and are vulnerable to crop failures.