Ethiopia, a country with a population of about 120 million, has possessed untapped abundant natural resources including surface and underground water, arable land, livestock, mines and forests.
However, the resources of all sorts in the nation have not been well exploited as per the economic demand of the nation due to lack of sufficient technical knowhow, finance and technology. Since long back, as of the imperial era, of course, the country has been striving for advancing the national economic growth through exploiting the resources. To that end the country has allocated huge amount of money generated from local sources and from abroad by securing loan and grant from partners and multinational financial institutions.
To support their development endeavors and in order to modernize the transportation system, the successive regimes constructed roads railways and air ports. They imported latest vehicles, cutting edge aircrafts which played pivotal role in transporting passengers and import and export commodities. To enhance modern energy sectors, they constructed hydropower dams, wind farms and have been exploring geothermal resources, expanded internet and telephone services, constructed industrial parks and to date, local and international investors have been installing their factories and became operational.
They also rendered special attention to the agriculture sector particularly to the small scale ones and provided agricultural inputs to farmers such as fertilizer, pest and herbicides in subsidized prices. They also provided extension services.
The current regime has exerted maximum effort to accelerate the economic progress focusing on various sectors. Among these is the ongoing dry season irrigated wheat farming. The practice enabled the nation to substitute the importation of wheat. Side by side with this, it is running its development endeavor by allocating budget derived from local sources and financial, technical and human resource support obtained through cooperation with partners. Recently, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Ethiopia Office has affirmed its commitment to continue supporting Ethiopia’s efforts to achieve sustainable development across various sectors.
In an interview with the local media, KOICA Country Director, Cho Han Deog, said that the agency’s mission is to assist partner countries like Ethiopia in achieving sustainable development, reducing poverty, and supporting inclusive growth while fostering strong Korea-Ethiopia relations. Recently, KOICA has approximately 20-30 ongoing projects, categorized as either small or large scales with a total investment of about 150 million USD, the country director said.
He added that, the agency is also engaged in several priority areas such as capacity
KOICA vows continued support to Ethiopia’s health sector through SHaPE2 Projectbuilding for the manufacturing sector, health care development, and climate resilience.
Among the climate response projects supported by KOICA, Deog stated that it is investing 12 million USD in climate-resilient afforestation, forest rehabilitation, and landscape management in collaboration with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). “These are excellent projects, and I hope they achieve great success as they are crucial for environmental sustainability.”
Additionally, he said that they are working with the Ethiopian government to introduce climate-smart agriculture practices aimed at mitigating climate impacts and enhancing resilience. In connection with this, the country director said, “I would like to acknowledge the Ethiopian government’s climate response initiatives, particularly its efforts in forest development, reforestation, and combating deforestation.”
For the last three decades, especially during the last five reform years, the governments of Ethiopia have been exerting their relentless efforts to afforestation and water-shade management so that to recover deforested and degraded farm lands, reduce erosion, replenish underground water and to make forests as shelter to wild animals.
According to the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission (EFCCC) in Ethiopia annually 1200 hectares of forest lands are deforested for various purposes and changed in to the barren land. Wet lands also changed in to grazing lands due to the excessive number of livestock which further degraded lands and aggravated erosion.
In order to curb the trend, various measures have been taken by the government, civil society organizations and private sector including providing energy saving stoves to each household which enabled them to reduce their rate of cutting trees for household energy consumption, supplying solar panels for electrification and establishing associations engaged on the protection of forests from destruction and encouraging results have been registered in this regard.
The clearance of forest dried up water points and aggravated shortage of water and desertification and the recurrent droughts again critically affects the sedentary farm and livestock which is the very means of living for the rural population.
As mentioned above deforestation has a multi –dimensional effects. The shortage of clean water due to drought forced women to spend 8 hours for fetching water and collecting woods and transporting it to their home. In addition, carrying the water pot on their back and going for long journey impacted their health. Hence, replenishing water points through afforestation and installing solar panel on the rural residents save their times that would have been used for fetching water and collecting fuel wood.
The country director also said that, KOICA’s support by noting that many Ethiopians rely on milk and dairy production for their livelihood. However, Deog pointed out that the development of milk products has not kept pace with the capacities of Ethiopian farmers and milk producers.
To address the challenges, the agency plans to strengthen the value chain of milk production from farmers to the final product. “Our goal is to support and enhance and modernize the Ethiopian milk production.”
He stressed that in all of the projects, it has been carrying out in Ethiopia, and KOICA considers the capacity building of Ethiopian stakeholders, and share Koreans’ experience, and knowledge with the pertinent officials.
It is proved that, Ethiopia has the largest livestock in Africa but its contribution to the economy because of various reasons is insignificant. The cattle rearing system both in the highland and lowland parts of the country is very traditional. In the low land parts, pastoral communities practice unsettled way of living and whenever they face shortage of water and forage, they leave their place for searching forage and water. In time of extreme weather conditions due to drought, their cattle would meet their death in the wilderness.
The absence of veterinary service also affects their animal s’ health and made them less productive of milk or meat. The location of the cattle rearing community which is in the remotest areas of the country made the resources in accessible to the market. As a result, their milk products are not supplied to the market sufficiently rather consumed by themselves and this again coerces them to stay in poverty.
Cattle rearing practice in the highland parts also characterized by subsistence. The absence of sufficient forage due to the change of grazing lands in to farm lands critically affects the cattle owner community. Oxen are usually used for plowing and play pivotal role for farming production and contributes a great deal for the nation’s economy because behind the agriculture growth there is the oxen labor. But the cow’s milk provision capacity is very less because of the traditional rearing system and their genetic makeup. According to the Ethiopian Nutrition Professional association, the milk and meat per capita consumption in Ethiopia as compared to the Sub-Saharan African countries is the lowest. Hence, to alleviate the problem modernizing the sector through cooperation with partners is essential.
According to the country director, each year, some projects are concluded and new ones are initiated. And currently, the agency is focusing on a major project that would enhance services.
“We are in discussions with various stakeholders, including Ethiopian and Korean partners, to advance this project. Ethiopian stakeholders include the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, the Federal Police, Customs Service, Bole International Airport authorities, and others.”
KOICA plans to invite experts from Incheon International Airport to collaborate. The goal is to connect Incheon International Airport with Bole International Airport through provision of flight services, assess the current performance of Bole Airport, and identify ways to enhance the performance for passengers.
The country director finally applauded the ongoing corridor development in Addis Ababa as it positively impacts perceptions of the Ethiopian capital. “I hope such initiatives will elevate Ethiopia’s status on the global stage and within Africa,” he said
BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2024
