The impact of precipitation variability on food production is very significant. For food insecure rural areas, understanding the nature of precipitation variability and its teleconnection has paramount importance in guiding regional and local level decisions. In this study, we analyzed the monthly, seasonal and annual precipitation variability and the strength of its teleconnection with the global sea-surface temperature (SST) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices in the food insecure rural areas of Tigray region, Ethiopia. The precipitation, SST, and ENSO indices data for the study were used from 1979 to 2019. A Summary of descriptive statistics and Mann Kendall test methods were applied to detect existence of trends; and Sen’s Slope and coefficient of variation are used to analyze the magnitude of the trend, and degree of variation in the trend of precipitation. Further, Pearson’s correlation is used to determine the effect of ENSO, and SST variations on the precipitation using the Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA). The results revealed that the precipitation over the study areas is characterized by a distinctive bi-modal pattern with limited rains in March – May preceding the main rainy season June – September. The limited amount of precipitation, exacerbated by higher degree of variability, makes the food production in the study areas more uncertain. Besides, there was a very significant decline in the trend of March – May average precipitation and a significant decline in the trend of the annual average precipitation of Hintalo area. The SSTs of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, and northeast and northwest equatorial Atlantic Ocean was strongly correlated with April’s average precipitation of the study areas. Further, the SST of south, west and southwest of equatorial Indian Ocean, and west equatorial Pacific Ocean were associated with July – September average precipitation with greater variation in strength among of the study areas. Moreover, July’s average precipitation of all the study areas, April’s average precipitation of Atsbi and Eirop, and May’s precipitation of Hintalo are found significantly associated with the ENSO indices of JFM, FMA, MJJ and MAM. Therefore, the task of achieving food security in the study areas should incorporate the design of informed food production strategies that can adapt the limited and variable precipitation based on these SST and ENSO indices.