in mid-1972, a young district development officer, abebaw kasai, sent a full report concerning conditions in the district to the ministry of community development; this was the first warning of what became the brutal 1973–74 famine which set off the ethiopian revolution and led to the fall of emperor haile selassie. the report was received with interest by the ministry of community development, but was rejected by the ministry of the interior. abebaw was severely reprimanded and told never to send such a negative report again. the ministry of agriculture commissioned a survey of the crop situation at harvest time in 1972. the survey was conducted by paul christensen, a united states peace corp volunteer. the survey accurately predicted that if the 1973 crops failed, about 220,000 people would be without food. the crops did fail in 1973.