ADDIS ABABA – The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research says it is preparing strategy with a view to effectuating the National Seed Policy that ensures farmers/pastoralists timely access to improved seeds.
Speaking to the Ethiopian Press Agency, Institute’s Director General Mandefro Nigusse (Ph.D.) said the preparation of the strategy is underway and will be finalized soon.
The director said the decades-old agricultural research undertakings have brought drastic changes in production and productivity. However, only 30-40 percent of farmers/pastoralists make use of improved seeds when it comes to crop production, he added.
“If we had pushed this number to 90 percent and above, late alone ensuring food self-sufficiency, we would have exported food crops and industrial inputs as well.”
The problems are mainly of two folds. There is inadequacy of firms that multiply technology. The aggregate capacity of seed multiplication firms, both private and government ones, are only 28-30 percent. The other problem is that it is tough to conclude that all farmers/pastoralists understand the technology properly. This is not to mention the dire gap created as a result of budget which has been putting a stumbling block to the efforts of scaling up the centers.
Hence, there is a need to build the knowledge and skills of the farmers and pastoralists.
To do this, there should be enough demonstration and popularization centers. The research centers of the Institute are 20 and when we add up the regional ones, it strikes 69 and this is insignificant for a country with a population of 110 million, of whom 16 million represents farmers/pastoralists.
He has expressed hope that the policy which is already effective and the would-be coming strategy address the problem.
The seed policy would help to sort the variety of seed multiplied at national level and it facilitates the sharing of information among the various bodies, he hinted.
He also commended on the agricultural research outputs conducted for decades now saying that unless it is for the agricultural research experts’ findings that helped increase production and productivity, the problem with food security would have been severe with the booming of the population size. “Hence, the agriculture experts’ contribution is beyond doubt.”
The Ethiopian Herald May 27, 2020
BY STAFF REPORTER
