Innovation is more important in modern agriculture than ever before. The industry as a whole is facing huge challenges, from rising costs of supplies, a shortage of labor, and changes in consumer preferences for transparency and sustainability. There is an increasing recognition from agriculture corporations that solutions are needed for these challenges. In the last 10 years, agriculture technology has seen a huge growth in investment, with 6.7 billion USD invested in the last 5 years and 1.9 billion USD last year alone.
Regardless of such advancements in agricultural technology and huge investment in the global arena, ensuring food self-sufficiency remains as a big issue among developing countries yet. Extracting agriculture from traditional practices and modernizing the process and upgrading productivity are the best ways to ensure food self-sufficiency, experts in the field comment.
In the case of Ethiopia, it is necessary to assess the status and outcomes of the process of modernizing agricultural technology that lasted for over a decade aiming to augment crop production.
Derese Teshome, Director of Agricultural Extension and Communication at The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) said that the institution generates and duplicates new technologies that increase crop production and also introduces them to farmers and the society. Adding, he said that the technologies play superior role in ensuring food security as well as securing foreign currency. He recalled that the institution, up to recent times, has focused on introducing ten new crop technologies.
According to Derese, amid crop varieties expected to contribute pivotal role in product increasing; teff, wheat, corn and rice are given special attention in the process. Production technology of sorghum crop named Melka is chosen for its high productivity, getting ready to harvest within three months after sowed replacing other crops and for its drought resilient capacity.
The extension director further said that corn seed known as “BH660” gives 90-120 quintals per hectare though the farmers have been producing 60-80 quintals for long time. Similarly, “BH 661” hybrid technology has been produced 65-85 quintals per hectare but the research assured that it provides 95-120 quintals, Derese said.
Among industry crops, though beer barley is imported, a new technology known as “AB 174/03” that fulfills standard quality of industry inputs and gives 57 quintals per hectare is discovered. Therefore, its demonstration promotion in bordered areas of Arsi, West Shoa and Gojjam is underway aiming to save foreign currency. Similarly, along with oil seeds, introduction of new species technologies of soya bean is widely underway in Benishangul, Pawe, Asosa, Jimma and Gondar areas as it generates foreign currency and supplements local edible oil deficiency, he noted.
On the other hand, Tamiru Habte, Mechanization Technology Director at the Ministry of Agriculture, for his part, said that though it was planned to substitute 50 percent of seven million couple oxen labor of 14 million farmers of the country through making them users of mechanization, it could not be achieved at the needed level. The achievement was very low in which only two million farmers have been made beneficiary from the agricultural mechanization in five consecutive years.
He said that, in order to increase agricultural production and productivity, the three major technologies such as biological, chemical and mechanical have to be utilized. The proper utilization of mechanical technology is helpful to increase crop production up to 50 percent, but Ethiopia uses only fertilizer and best seed technologies though provision of best seed that does not need foreign currency is not widely carried out.
“The plan to conduct 60 percent of harvesting and threshing process via combine harvester could not be fully achieved so that the farming process could not escape from traditional way of using sickle,” Tamiru said.
Milkessa Waqjira (PhD), Agro Economics Lecturer at Ambo University, for his part, said that applying mechanization, irrigation, improved seeds, fertilizer through trained human resource is crucial in order to augment agricultural product and productivity. He believed that technology outcomes could not be accessible to the farmers. As a result, the farmers’ life remains unchanged and unimproved.
Dr. Milkessa said: “We are at a lower level in producing barley, corn, wheat and other products. Not only this, extension professionals are not skilled and experienced enough yet in convincing and changing farmers’ attitude. For instance, corn seedlings on one hectare have to be up to 65 thousand but Ethiopian farmers could not surpass 20 thousand. Because of this, half of the production is decreased.”
It is noted that among the major challenges affecting mechanization technology in the past years are lack of trained human resource, absence of mechanization technology from import goods list that are given priority and exclusion of the technology from the list of foreign currency priority though tax free import is permitted.
The Ethiopian Herald November26, 2019
BY BACHA ZEWDIE
