By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent

Ethiopia's famine appears to be spreading

Interviews with people in 20 villages across the country suggested a growing but reluctant reliance on foreign aid.

New research suggests that famine is spreading in Ethiopia despite worldwide concerns once spurred by Live Aid.

It found people affected by hunger have a good understanding of their situation and are actively fighting to survive.

The research, carried out by UK researchers funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, involved interviews in the summer of 2003 with people in 20 villages across Ethiopia's main areas, Amhara, Oromia, Tigray and the southern region.

Parents' anguish

It is described in a report, Coping With Hunger And Poverty In Ethiopia, by Professor Alula Pankhurst of the University of Addis Ababa and Philippa Bevan, a research fellow at the University of Bath, UK.

The report is part of the programme of the ESRC's Wellbeing in Developing Countries research group, which works with partners in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Peru and Thailand.

Despite the importance of food aid... people report negative effects, including long-term dependency, laziness and reduced self-reliance Coping with Hunger and Poverty in Ethiopia Report

The authors say they found a general feeling that food insecurity had increased. They heard of people who had killed themselves because they could not bear to watch their children starve.

But they say it is more helpful in Ethiopia's case to talk of hunger and poverty than of famine, though they conclude that famine is spreading there, especially in the south of the country.

They say: "People and communities affected by hunger have a considerable understanding of the processes involved. Individuals and households are actively engaged in struggles to survive and prosper."

Selling livestock is one way to cope

Of the 20 villages visited, 16 had been affected by at least one of the main recent famines in 1973, 1984/5 and 1994/5.

The authors say: "Nine of the 20 villages have experienced chronic food insecurity and are dependent on food aid.

"Despite the importance of food aid... people report negative effects, including long-term dependency, laziness and reduced self-reliance".

One man told them: "If there had been no food aid we would all have been dead, or we would have become labourers."

Survival strategies

But another said: "For those lazy fellows who depend on the food aid, it has a negative aspect. Hard-working farmers want permanent aid to pull them from this type of life for ever."

Many people told the researchers why they thought food supplies were becoming less secure. Causes they mentioned included the weather, animal and plant diseases, and population growth.

Many hesitated to attribute deaths to famine, prompting the researchers to say: "Preoccupation with famine deaths in the media may no longer be useful in understanding famine.

"Instead, the focus should be on strategies for coping with hunger and the links between food insecurity and poverty."