BY ADDISALEM MULAT
It is abundantly clear that Ethiopia is one of the countries in the continent of Africa that rely heavily on agriculture. Apart from enhancing the country’s economic, social, and political development, Ethiopia has been working strenuously to boost its agricultural productivity more than ever before.
As augmented output plays a noteworthy role in promoting the country’s export volume and reaching new markets in various parts of the world, Ethiopia should be able to attach importance to modern farming technology at the earliest possible time. In doing so, the country can ensure food security down the road and transform meaningfully the lives of the population as a whole.
To the best of my knowledge, pertinent bodies residing in various parts of the country ought to move heaven and earth with the intention of increasing the agricultural productivity of the country and meeting the demand of the population as a whole within a short period of time.
Along similar lines, Ethiopia should be able to learn from the experience of other countries generally known for their unexceptional exploitation of water resources to step up productivity in the left, right, and center of the country at the earliest possible juncture. Furthermore, the country should be able to attract quite a lot of investors from various parts of the world to get themselves engaged in the agriculture sector of the country.
In a similar vein, the country should be able to tailor palpable strategies in contemplation of drawing lessons that are supportive to accomplish indispensable change throughout the country. As farming can trigger elevated financial as well as social earnings and smooth the progress of economic branching off, Ethiopia can bring a considerable degree of effective policies into play that can take the country to the next level of accomplishment.
Ethiopia should make an effort to promptly upsurge agricultural production all over the country making the most of an extensive range of fruitful techniques.
Even though the agriculture sector plays a major role in buttressing the country’s economy, the anticipated goal has not been achieved as one would expect. Instead of being dependent on an irrigation-based agriculture system, the country’s agricultural system needs to be modernized.
Although Ethiopia is known as the water tower of Africa, the country is not able to use its resources as it should be. To get to the bottom of the problem, small-scale irrigation systems should be put in place in every nook and cranny of the country. Additionally, they should be supported to become accustomed to better skills, knowledge, and experiences that can transform the lives of the community in the shortest possible time.
If pertinent bodies stand by the side of farmers against this background, boosting the agricultural productivity of the country would be as easy as falling off a log.
As things stand at present, as there is a considerable amount of higher learning institutions all over the country that place emphasis on schooling water engineering, and irrigation and graduating thousands of students year on year, they should play their role in the agricultural productivity of the country.
While on the subject, as small-scale irrigation plays a significant role in ameliorating harvests, diminishing jeopardies caused by weather inconsistency and upsurges profits and give the green light to farmers to procure food in the course of challenging times.
As information obtained from policy research working paper, Ethiopian agriculture is increasingly falling as farmers work to expand agricultural lands at a great cost to the environment and the delicate ecological system, thereby risking the very fabric of their own livelihood. Systemic obstacles to agricultural and rural transformation in Ethiopia can be summarized as lack of sustained and intergenerational commitments to transformation, constitutional and legal constraints, government crowding out the private sector leadership, lack of mechanization options and constrained input supply system, lack of effective and accountable organizational capacity, lack of agricultural and rural finance and credit facilities and environmental degradation.
If pertinent bodies residing in various parts of the country work hand in glove to rehabilitate degraded lands making use of a wide spectrum of techniques, the intended target can be attained without a shred of a doubt.
Besides, private researchers should be encouraged to contribute their share to the development activities of the agricultural sector of the country. Of late, Talegeta Leul, re-specialist researcher and principal scientist managed to invent sustainable yield-oriented agricultural research that could ensure food security across the country. He said in a recently published article of The Ethiopian Herald regarding automated perennial crops’ seed,
“Ethiopia could reap a lot of benefits. In the beginning, it extremely lessens extra expenses of land preparation/cultivation as rejuvenating crops will be harvested for a longer period of time. It as well renders one’s surroundings green. Besides, every household turns out to be self-sufficient owing to the continuous harvest. Apart from that, the trend stabilizes the market as the supply grows to be surplus. Without a shadow of a doubt, automated -Perennial crop seeds improve the nutritional status of citizens in addition to making toddlers and young children healthy, productive and creative.”
The Ethiopian Herald February 17/2021
