By Andrew Geoghegan | ABC Australia

TONY EASTLEY: Almost a quarter of a century after Ethiopia's last major famine the country is again in deep trouble.

The failure of recent harvests and rising food prices have left eight million people in need of aid.

Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan visited some of the worst affected areas of Ethiopia and met an Australian woman trying to help those in dire need.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: A three hour drive south of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa is the town of Shashamane.

Recent rain has turned the land green, but it's too little, too late, food is scarce.

(Baby cries)

This baby is severely malnourished.

"I cannot feed my family," says her mother. "Even if I try by all the energy I have."

Sophia Husein and her family are among the eight million Ethiopians who are in desperate need of food aid.

VALERIE BROWNING: The baby's born small from the mothers' malnutrition probably, so basically we'll have to treat the little girl with antibiotics now.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Australian Valerie Browning has an intimate understanding of the plight of Ethiopians.

VALERIE BROWNING: Just very recently we hit the worst, we hit literally death by hunger of little children and I hadn't seen that in 19 years.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Valerie Browning works for a local aid group. She settled here two decades ago after falling in love with the land and its people; people who are now suffering.

VALERIE BROWNING: If we don't work now, right now then we've lost the day. I really believe that.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: A quarter of a century ago Ethiopia became a byword for famine.

(Bob Geldof song plays)

Images of children dying of starvation prompted Bob Geldof to launch Live Aid. Since then Ethiopia's population has doubled and now world food prices are soaring. Opposition politician Gebru Asrat says Ethiopia has failed to learn from the past.

GEBRU ASRAT: To see another famine in this country after 24 years is a sad thing where millions are starving.

VALERIE BROWNING: Most families are down to two meals a day. Some are down to one.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Valerie Browning.

VALERIE BROWNING: I've seen them mixing tiny bits of grain with huge amounts of water, boiling it up and calling it porridge and drinking that as a meal. And they are desperately hungry people.

TONY EASTLEY: Australian Valerie Browning ending that report from Andrew Geoghegan in Ethiopia. And there'll be more on the Ethiopian story on Foreign Correspondent at 9.30 tonight on ABC1.