A malnourished boysits outside a feeding center in Damota Pulassa village, southern Ethiopia. (Jose Cendon/AFP/Getty Images)
"Begging is a shameful practice," the 55-year-old said, standing in a field lush with healthy wheat, making him one of the country's luckier growers. "What we need now is skills and training. We don't need food aid anymore."
More than a million died in 1984, and the suffering provoked the biggest outpouring of charity the world has ever seen.
Tayto Mesfin's confidence looks premature, as huge numbers of Ethiopians still depend on foreigners for food. The government says inadequate rains mean 6.2 million people need aid this year and has appealed to the international community to help.
Another seven million are on a scheme that gives food in exchange for work, which means more than 13 million of the country's 83 million people rely on foreign handouts to survive.
Aid agency Oxfam says food aid has trapped Ethiopia into a cycle of dependency and that donations could be better spent.
Climate Change
Ethiopians say they are sick of their image as a famished country and point to foreign investors' growing interest.
"We have a long history to be proud of as Ethiopians," said Girma Bereket, an engineer, on a flight to Gondar in central Ethiopia. "If we could develop through investment then we could feed ourselves."
Some experts worry climate change could undo progress.
An Oxfam report to mark the 25th anniversary of the famine, "Band Aids and Beyond", says drought will be the norm for the next 25 years.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi -- who will represent Africa at December's Copenhagen talks on climate change—has demanded compensation for the continent and says European carbon emissions caused the 1984 disaster.
"Ethiopia is a country particularly vulnerable to climate change," Oxfam spokeswoman Caroline Gluck told Reuters. "But drought need not become a disaster if communities are helped to become more resilient to shocks."
Just 0.14 percent of global aid cash is spent on disaster prevention, Oxfam says.
Tayto Mesfin said he was one of the few Ethiopians who had benefitted from such schemes and attributes his golden wheat harvest to a project that taught him and 1,000 other farmers in Abay how to crossbreed seeds to improve yields.
Abay people are also trying grain banks, small loan schemes and beekeeping and the area looks more prosperous than most.
Amsah Emdale, a 35-year-old beekeeper and mother of four, says she is now more confident she can survive drought and feels she has more dignity.
"Before we were just hiding at home," she said. "Now we have the opportunity to get out of the house and work."
