The semiarid regions of Ethiopia are exposed to anthropogenic and natural calamities. In this study, we assessed the relationship between Tropical Applications of Meteorology using Satellite data (TAMSAT) and MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data for the period 2000 to 2014 on decadal and annual basis using multivariate distributed lag (DL) models. Decadal growing season (June to September) values for kaftahumera were calculated from MODIS NDVI data. The growing season NDVI values are highly correlated with the precipitations during the whole study period. A lag of up to 30 days observed in most parts of our study region in which the rainfall has effects on vegetation growth after 40 days. The lag-time effects vary with the distribution of land use types and seasons. A lower correlation was observed in the woodland regions where significant deforestation occurred due to expansion of croplands. The loss in vegetation contributed to the low biomass production attributable to extended loss in vegetation cover.