(pictured above) Teferra Deribew, Minister of Agriculture
Written by ABIY HAILU
Agriculture is the major driver of economic growth in Ethiopia. In fact, the country’s economy is largely based on the agricultural sector which accounts for 46.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 85 per cent of total employment. The sector is also the major earner of foreign exchange, accounting for 80 per cent of total exports.
The agricultural development strategy of the country gives much emphasis to intensification of marketable farm products -both for domestic and export markets. Such intensification can be done by small and large scale farms. Fundamentals of the strategy include the shift of production to high value crops. In relation to that a special attention is given to high-potential areas, facilitation of the commercialization of agriculture, and supporting the development of large-scale commercial agriculture where it is feasible.
During the GTP period, Ethiopia plans to transform the agriculture sector into a high growth engine in order to ensure its food security and to curb inflationary pressure as well to broaden its export base. Agriculture is also hoped to serve as a spring board to bring about structural transformation in the long run through its contribution to industrial growth.
Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture briefed members of the media on the 2005 E.C performance of the agricultural sector. According to Teferra Deribew, Minister of Agriculture, the country has produced 231.28 million quintals of major crops on 12.28 million hectares of land during the Meher season of 2004/2005 E.C. The plan was to produce 225.9 million quintals on 11.7 million hectares of land. Accordingly, the crop production has increased by 12 million quintals or 5.9 per cent from the 2003/04 E.C. The farmland covered with seeds has also surpassed the plan by 1.6 per cent.
During 2005 E.C, 1.9 million hectares of land has also been covered with various crops using irrigation and 504,107 quintals of fertilizer has also been utilized in the process, he added. The total area of irrigated crop land surpassed the plan by 200,000 hectares. This has benefited four million farmers who had a combined production volume of 201 million quintals of crop yield, according to Teferra.
“The production increment resulted from a combination of factors such as the favorability of the Meher season and intensification of irrigation activities, coupled with other policy measures. All these measures have helped drop the general inflation rate to a single digit,” Tefera stated.
During the Belg season, he said, the Ministry planned to develop 2.4 million hectares of land and some 2.2 million hectares have been covered with seeds while 2.8 million farmers have participated in the agricultural development. “The total production of the Belg season is not known yet as the production is still underway and will be announced by the Central Statistics Authority once the crops are harvested ”, Teferra added.
According to him, during the 2005/06 production year, the Ministry expects to achieve higher crop production than what is planned in the GTP. “The plan as per the best case scenario of the GTP is to produce 245 million quintals of crop. In 2005/06, it is planned to increase this amount by 20 per cent by producing 277 million quintals. The leadership at all levels is exerting maximum effort to realize this goal and 11.4 million farmers are expected to take part in the endeavor,” he said.
Teffera also noted that up untill now, 9.9 million hectares of land has been covered with various crop seeds, out of which, 2.8 million hectares was covered using the line sowing method. In addition, in order to carry out the Meher production through the mobilization of development army, various efforts have been made to equip them with the appropriate skills and attitude. Accordingly, nine million farmers have received trainings on 10 selected crops on how to sow in line, mix and prepare fertilizer, protect crops, and other new technologies.
The Ministry has also met 99 per cent of its plan in the distribution of fertilizer. During the budget year, 971,000 metric tones of fertilizer has been supplied out of which 699,176 metric tone has been distributed to farmers until the end of August. The distribution of fertilizer has shown increment by 99,182 metric tones compared with that of the previous year, according to the Minister.
Then again, as per the GTP, 2,729,000 quintals of improved seeds will be distributed to farmers. The Minister said, 2,040,863 quintals of improved seeds have been distributed to farmers. For the coming budget year, 83,782.95 quintals of basic improved seeds have been distributed to seed producing enterprises for reproduction, according to the Minister.
Regarding other agricultural inputs, he noted that 24,367 IBAR BBM ploughs have been produced and distributed to farmers in order to optimize the productivity of clay soil by draining the excess amount of water from the soil. Moreover, 42,350 Kg of gypsum have been distributed to treat acidic soils.
In nature, cereals have the capacity to absorb Nitrogen from the environment and to turn it into organic fertilizer using bacteria and fungus in their roots. Accordingly, in the budget year, 115,000 sacks of organic fertilizer have been produced and distributed by reproducing the nitrogen fixing bacteria.
Concerning export of agricultural products, the Minister noted that 264.52 million USD have been gained from the exports of horticultural products. However, this is only 58 per cent of the plan. The execution performance of the horticultural export is 72.3, 128.8 and 26.6 per cent for floriculture, vegetable and fruit products respectively, he said adding, the Ministry is working to fill the gap in horticultural exports by building the production capacity of local firms and attracting new investors.
Regarding watershed management as well as water and soil conservation Teferra underlined that since the conservation activities undertaken in the past three years of the GTP exceeded what plans under the GTP, it was necessary to revise the plan. Thus, in the budget year, while it was planned to carry out the water and soil conservation activities on additional 5.9 million hectares, the activities have been carried out on 5.2 million hectares of land. He further indicated that the majority of the active labor force in the rural areas has taken part and its monetary value is estimated to be 10.6 billion birr.
“While the plan was to cover 7.8 million hectares of land, the water and soil conservation activities have been performed on 13,7 million hectares of land during the past three years of the GTP, exceeding the total area of land planned to be covered in the entire five years of the GTP,” he said. Moreover, 6.8 million seedlings including those that can be used for the production of animal fodder have been planted, he said.
The other major plan for the budget year was the provision of land ownership certificate to farmers. According him, there are 11.2 million farmers in total in Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) and Tigray states. In this regard 10.8 million or 96 per cent of the farmers have received first level ownership certificate. Out of this, 8.5 million are men household heads while the rest 2.3 million or 21.4 are female household head.
Regarding the second level land ownership certificate, 1.5 million farmlands have been registered using modern technology in Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia, SNNP and Tigaye states. In 2005, 56,388 male and 13,877 male and female household heads have received the second level land ownership certificate. This would help farmers to develop land ownership mentality and enables them to transfer their lands without difficulty by providing them with organized legal information hence properly develop their land and improve productivity, Teferra noted. The land ownership certificate also ensures the benefit of women from their land and helps improve good governance problems.
Moreover various activities have been carried out to ensure the effectiveness of food security programmes. He said various supports have been provided to 6,889,910 families who faced food security problem in 319 Woredas of eight states. In the 2005 budget year, 1,740,366,726 birr has been assigned to the execution of the community prgorammes under Safety Net, including those who are under the community development programme, children, old persons, pregnant and lactating mothers.
In the stated budget year, 204,727 household heads or 888,088 household members have graduated from the Safety Net programmes. He also added that in the past five years, 755, 539 household heads or three million people have graduated from Safety Net programmes. Further, various activities have been undertaken to improve animal husbandry, fodder supply and veterinary coverage in the country, the Minister noted.
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