Increases in cereal prices can have adverse effects on poor net food buyers. This is a particular problem in Ethiopia because of frequent natural calamities – especially droughts – that lead to significant price hikes.

Timely and accurate agricultural impact assessments for droughts are critical for designing appropriate interventions and policy. These assessments are often ad hoc, late, or spatially imprecise, with reporting at the zonal or regional level.

The most recent (2010–2011) drought in the arid and semiarid lowlands (ASAL) of the Horn of Africa has rendered over 13 million people in need of food, and caused a devastating famine in southern Somalia.