Livestock raising communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change. |
Integrating various
agricultural inputs, implementing ecology based selective farming and
adapting modern technologies are the major tools in facilitating the
agriculture sector transformation.
Apparently, in the
efforts to change Ethiopia's traditional farming practice to the modern
one, extension workers and research institutions' professional support
are the crux of the matter.
Farmers need access
to market linkages and information to bring about sector's
transformation with a view to increasing production and productivity. To
realize the aforementioned proposed objective, the government,
agriculture sector mainstreamed ministerial offices and several other
actors have been toiling to boost production, productivity.
They as well have
been supporting efforts in increasing agriculture's share to the
national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Thus, in 2016-2017,according to
the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ethiopia sets to
cover 13. 8 million hectares of land with various crops and collect
about 345 million quintals of yield in the forthcoming Summer 'Mehir'
harvesting season.
So far, 10.7
million hectares of land have been cultivated, 3.5 million hectares of
land have been sown . Among those 2.6 million hectares of land have been
sown in a row. Besides, about 14 million quintals of various types of
blended fertilizers based on soil f1ertility have been made available to
the farmers during this rainy season, it said.
Moreover, Ethiopia
has been engaged in transforming the agricultural-led economy into
industry- led. The government has endorsed various polices and
strategies, established Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and a
corporation so as to transform the sector via raising production and
productivity and achieving GTP II goals.
In light of this,
in a recent exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald, ATA
Agribusiness Market Linkage Manager Zegeye Tekilu said: " ATA was
established by the late prime minister aimed at contributing to
transform the existing Ethiopian farming practice. Because, compared to
world farming practice status and capacity, a lot have remained to be
done here. Therefore, to beef up the current agricultural production and
productivity, the country has to train human power, enhance commitment
and dedication."
Although, Ethiopian
agriculture practice has registered long years and contributed a lot to
the nation's economic development, it has not been modernized as it has
been intended. Yet, the country is endowed with conducive agro-
ecologies for farming.
Yes, it is possible
to increase production and productivity , reach world average yield
production by integrating its human power and land resources added with
modern farming technologies and research outlets. " If we achieve world
average yield production status , the country can achieve its middle
income rank plan by 2025." he said.
The country cannot
realize the set goals through increasing production and productively
only. This is because it need to raise mainly everybody's income, and
improve their lifestyles . More importantly, farmers need to access to
market by adding values, he noted.
He pointed out that
as the sector has been playing a great role in the growth of the
national GDP, the government established ATA to further galvanize the
sector. Hence, ATA has been implementing multi- dimensional approaches
to play its own share in the sector, such as conducting various
researches, taking several countries' best experiences. It has also been
implementing several research findings.
Therefore, to discharge given
responsibility ,ATA has been working jointly with the Agriculture and
Natural Resources, Livestock and Fisheries, Trade and Industry
Ministries, he added.
So as to accomplish
its objectives , agricultural inputs and farming technologies should be
available and applied scientifically, rigorous trainings should be
given and field demonstrations should be displayed . By far, ATA has
been working thoroughly in reducing the nation's agricultural production
bottlenecks, he said.
Currently,
Agricultural Commercialization Cluster (ACC) focusing on market oriented
agriculture practice has been implemented in 239 woredas of the
country. "We have 25 clusters in Amhara, Tigray, SNNPS , and Oromia
which implement six crop commodities, livestock and horticulture.
Consequently, farmers can produce maize on average 66 - 70 quintals per
hectare in Amhara and Oromia States, but there are places where about
100 quintals/ hectare production have been gained, he said.
What is more, ATA
has registered commendable achievements in maize, wheat, teff, sesame ,
haricot beans and livestock . The clusters , enable to access all kinds
of agricultural inputs and create market linkages . Maize is mainly
implemented in Amhara and Oromia, Sesame in Tigray , haricot beans in
SNNPS . Teff is also implemented in Amahra ,Oromia and Tigray . All the
six commodities have registered better results . Particularly ATA has
paid particularly attention on increasing farmers' income ,improvising
nation's export commodity .
Therefore,
promising results have been registered so far, it has made many farmers
to engage in the clusters , increase production and productivity as well
as create market linkages . But, there are many duties to be done ahead
that can be implemented in agricultural processing.
However, lack of
implementing capacity, access to agriculture finance, market linkage
among others are some of the bottlenecks to be addressed by far .
According to ATA,
the ACC Initiative is ultimately a nation-wide approach to integrating
agriculture, agro-processing, and industry in a geographically tailored
way. The roll-out of the concept, however, will be sequenced in order to
test and refine the approach before scaling up.
As such, the
initial implementation of the ACC Initiative is focused on 26 clusters
in the four states of the country with the largest concentration of
agricultural production. These first wave of clusters (designed for
optimal size to encompass 5-15 woredas each and reaching an estimated
3.5 million farmers in total) were selected based on their production
potential, natural resource potential, access to market, and presence of
the private sector around priority commodities.
During the initial
phase of GTP II, ten major commodities have been prioritized within
these 26 clusters, though each cluster will prioritize two to three
primary commodities while highlighting rotation crops, important for
soil health and human nutrition, as well as other livestock products to
accommodate the crop-livestock mixed farming system prevalent in
Ethiopia's highlands.
Strategies for
seven of these commodities - wheat, maize, teff, malt barley, sesame,
haricot bean, and honey - have been developed, with three additional
commodities - beef, dairy, and horticulture - slated for development in
2009 EC.
Beyond the initial
wave of 26 clusters, the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources
(MoANR ), Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries(MoLF) together with
relevant regional partners have been tasked to implement the cluster
concept nationally. Similar to the approach on other Transformation
Agenda Deliverable, the ATA is expected to lead in piloting this concept
in the initial ten commodities and 26 clusters, whereas the MoANR and
MoLF will be responsible for scaling up the concept across the country.
For 2009 EC, the ATA has already begun intensive work on the seven
commodities for which strategies have been developed, focusing on an
initial 14 clusters.
During the initial
stages of GTP II, the ATA's support for these clusters and commodities
will entail two primary areas: increasing crop production and
productivity and enhancing market linkages, through a three-pronged
approach comprising innovation, testing and validation. Full package
demonstrations, and scale-up support to farmers. Scale-up of the full
package entails encouraging farmers to use a complete set of recommended
inputs and farming practices (improved seed,
appropriate fertilizer,
agro-chemicals, and other best practices) while ITV aims to test and
validate new technologies for efficient and effective farming with the
research and extension system.
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