El Niño in Ethiopia: early impacts of drought in South Tigray

These field notes describe some of the impacts of the failed spring and the 2015 El Niño- induced erratic and poor summer rains on rain fed farmers in South Tigray. These are based on visits to communities in November and December 2015, and the use of focus group discussions, key informant interviews and participatory methods with smallholder farmers, traders and government staff. The target audience of this document are policy makers and programme managers.