Ethiopia has been endeavoring to ensure its food security over the last two decades. But it has not yet achieved its goal. Hence, the government is still importing wheat to fulfill home consumption. Having realized this critical issue, it has designed wheat development policy to save foreign currency being spent on importing wheat.
The Ministry of Agriculture says the nation is working to ensure wheat self-sufficiency in the coming five years that would fully substitute the wheat imports.
Mechanized agriculture, crop speculation, irrigation, research and innovation schemes would have vital role in enhancing wheat produce and productivity of the nation in an incredible manner, Minister of Agriculture, Omer Hussien states.
According to researches, more than 5 million producers produce about 4 million metric ton of wheat annually from 1.6 million hectares of land, which is still insignificant taking the land area which is conducive for wheat harvest into consideration.
Ethiopia has been heavily dependent on rain. Consequently, it has been vulnerable for climate change catastrophes. To solve this problem sustainably, the Minister vowed to introduce irrigation agriculture which alleviates rain dependency.
‘‘We are creating awareness among the farmers to produce wheat in dry season (bega) using irrigational agriculture system. This year, 14,100 hectares of land will be covered with wheat through irrigation. There is also initiation to distribute specialized wheat crops to farmers so as to enhance produce and productivity,” he adds.
He underlines that the country has been tirelessly working to produce sufficient wheat in the coming two years that could relinquish the 25 percent wheat imports.
Ethiopia has 12 river basins that would be suitable for harnessing more than four million hectares of land using irrigation. Thus, the government should design realistic strategy to utilize such resource to ensure food sufficiency, especially to realize the ambition of self-sufficient in wheat production, Meareg Bezabh, Lecturer of Agriculture at Jimma University.
‘‘Ethiopia is known as ‘The Water Tower of Africa’ a phrase given to express its abundant water resources. However, there are challenges in utilizing the ground and surface water potential for transforming
wheat production tremendously. The government in collaboration with research institutions and other stakeholders should identify the challenges and their solutions,’’ he points out.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopia has spent 60 billion Birr in five years for wheat imports. Taking this huge expenditure into consideration, producing at home would save significant hard currency, the lecturer explains.
As far as specialization is concerned, Meareg underlines the importance of specialized wheat varieties which could resist drought and water deficiency.
‘‘Specialized wheat produce has shown encouraging results in states like Afar. This best practice should be scaled up to other areas of the country. Besides, modern agricultural technologies ought to be distributed to households,’’ as to him.
Beyond securing food sufficiency, Meareg expresses his optimism that the nation could export wheat if it implements the designed policy in an appropriate way.
Wheat which is the fourth stable crop in Ethiopia next to Teff, Sorghum and maize needs mechanized agricultural system to boost its produce.
The Ethiopian Herald December 29/2019
BY TSEGAY HAGOS
