ADDIS ABABA- Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resource announced that it has launched a new farming initiative in collaboration with stakeholders to produce six million quintals of wheat in Awash, Wabi Shebelle and Omo basins.
Shemsedin Yusuf, Public Relations and Communication Team Leader with the Ministry said that the Ministry has come up with a lowland wheat production initiative to substitute wheat imports.
The Ministry is planning to cultivate 132,000 hectares of land in the three basins in this fiscal year. In its demonstration sites, it plans to cultivate 1,500, 3,200 and 600 hectares of land in Awash, Wabi Shebele and Omo basins respectively.
Currently in Wabi Shebele Basin while 1500 hectares of land had been ploughed and prepared, wheat is broadcasted on 200 hectares of land. He also added that the seeds that have been sown so far are growing as the farming process was supported by scientific research.
Despite the availability of fertile land in the three basins, the small-scale farmers have not been successful in producing wheat as they fail to mechanize their farming methods, due to various challenges such as lack of access to information and absence of willingness to take a risk and apply new technologies.
To address these challenges, the Ministry has been working in collaboration with Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) to enable farmers to mechanize their farming practice. As to Shemsedin, the initiative is expected to enable the country save 60 billion birr to be spent on wheat importation in the next five years.
The Ethiopian Herald, November 20/2019
BY TAMERU REGASA
