The good news: Ethiopia, a byword for famine, produced 24 per cent more grain this year than last. The bad news: these surpluses often don’t prevent famine. Because the extra food isn’t distributed around the country, it can cause a local glut and plummeting grain prices that leave farmers with little money to invest in their farms. Elsewhere, people are unable to buy the grain and go hungry.
The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on 28 January that it hopes to break out of this trap by buying the surplus, and then for the first time managing it in two…
