Ethiopia has recorded fast economic growth over the past decade, with an average growth rate of 10.7 percent per year for the period ranging from 2003/04 to 2011/12. During this time, statistics reveal the average agricultural growth rate has been close to 7 percent per annum.
The respective states along with the federal government have been working to increase agriculture productivity by equipping the human capital (farmers) with supplies and technologies. So far the country had been striving to allocate resources in a bid to improve agricultural development and productivity, while concerted efforts have been made by both the government and development partners. The Agricultural Growth Program (AGP-I) was a clear example of these collaborative efforts.
AGP is a multifaceted investment program that aims to support agricultural productivity and commercialization by focusing on high agricultural potential areas to address some of the key constraints to agricultural growth and thereby contribute to overall economic growth and transformation. It is a program approach and is viewed by the government as a key investment mechanism for collaboration.
The Second Agricultural Growth Program (AGP II) would be aligned with the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II), thereby contributing to the achievement of targets set for agriculture sector growth. The independent impact evaluations, studies, and assessments conducted during the first phase have been used in designing the AGP II to improve implementation and maximize the overall impact of the program.
Ethiopian Agriculture Research Institute said that the program has been instrumental in supplying farmers with agricultural technologies needed to increase productivity. The project has assisted farmers in applying technology and research in productive areas, and, overall, ensuring food security.
According to Sofiya Kassa, AGP-II Research Coordinator, the program had been fruitful as it opened huge opportunities to supply farmers with agricultural technologies that directly link with the other components of the program. It has enabled the Ministry of Agriculture to implement pre-extension demonstration of proven agricultural technologies, and produce proven technologies to large-scale multipliers.
As to her, so far, the program has completed the generation and adaptation of 495 technologies that contributed to the productivity and commercialization of the agriculture sector. “As such, 94.6 percent of the target was reached.”
Out of these technologies, she continued, the lion share went towards crops while a total of 151 technologies were promoted to sub-sectors like natural resources and livestock. The remaining was related to mechanization, socio-economics, climate-geospatial, and agricultural nutrition.
Since 2015, the Project has anticipated that 240 technologies will reach the promotion stage. To this end, 338 (140 percent of the target) technologies were promoted through the pre-extension demonstration approach.
Oromia Agriculture Research Institute General Director Dr. Feto Esimo the Program is game-changer in Oromia context, especially in terms of equipping facilities with modern agricultural research equipment. “We will keep on scaling up the practices in areas where the program had not been practiced.”
According to him, the main objective of the agricultural research component of the AGP-II was to increase the supply of demand-driven agricultural technologies that directly link to the other components of the program, implement pre-extension demonstration of proven agricultural technologies and produce demanded source technologies for supply to large scale multipliers (public and private) for on-farm technology demonstration.
Indeed, the AGP II program has contributed crucially in the effort to achieve sustainable food security and agricultural transformation by developing the untapped potential of well-endowed areas. And in light of this, the government should strengthen the effort further in supplying farmers with selected seeds that could impact productivity in many ways.
The Ethiopian Herald January 22/2020
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
