BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
Though agriculture sector faced surmounting challenges, it remained the mainstay of the nation’s economy. The government long ago prioritized the sector and took various measures and among others enhancing the utilization of modern inputs and providing extension service to farmers can be mentioned.
Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture reported its 6 months performance to the House of People’s Representatives. On the occasion, Minister Omer Hussein said that in order to raise agricultural productivity, his Ministry provided agricultural inputs to farmers such as fertilizers, chemicals and select seeds at an affordable price.
In the last six months, in most parts of the country invasion of desert locust, flood occurred due to the extreme weather conditions and the outbreak of COVID-19 critically affected the sector performance. Nevertheless, through strong commitment withstanding the crises was possible.
Educating farmers with regard to the effort to overcome the climate disaster and practicing social distancing to curb the spread of the pandemic played crucial roles in this regard.
According to the
Ministry, six months report, as compared to last year, the ministry performed
at average level in enhancing the quality and quantity of agricultural export
products. The chairperson of the committee for Agriculture, Pastorals and
Environmental Affairs in the House Almaz Mesele on her part said that though
the Ministry of Agriculture faced severe crises due to the above mentioned
problems, it tried its level best to deliver its responsibilities.
She further said that the cultivation of wheat through irrigation during winter is encouraging and plays a crucial role in making the nation food self–sufficient and strengthening the farmers, extension workers and other stakeholders’ efforts is essential.
According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change recent studies, the sector faced critical natural and human made challenges and about 95 percent of the nation’s cultivated area is used by smallholder farmers.
Severe population pressure in the highlands is forcing land fragmentation and expansion of agriculture into forests, steep hill and mountain sides and marginal areas. There is little room for further expansion. In many areas, an increasing proportion of the rural population, as much as 30 percent has become landless. Furthermore, rapid horizontal expansion of human settlements into fertile agricultural lands without proper planning and zoning is reducing cultivable land.
Yields of crops are very low compared to international standards. Agricultural production is mostly rain-fed. Only 3percent of cropland is irrigated while a huge potential to develop 3.7 million ha of irrigable land remains unharnessed.
Poor soil and water conservation practices as well as high livestock overgrazing have led to accelerated soil erosion that now affects more than 50 percent of the cultivated area. Land degradation, manifested in the form of sheet, rill and gully erosion and nutrient mining, affects more than 50% of the cultivated area, causing reduction of agricultural productivity and eroding farmers’ livelihood.
According to the Ministry, the key challenges of the sector that are pervasive everywhere are among others poor integration, fragmented crop selection between small scale farmers, making difficult to generate network effects for specific crops.
As to the recent Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation study, small average farm sizes which are 0.8 hectare increased per unit costs for inputs and hinders technology adoption which minimizes productivity.
Chemical is one of the necessary inputs which helps raising productivity and recently to reduce the impact of pests and locusts huge amounts of chemicals were spread in various parts of farmlands. Asked whether the chemicals have side effects on the environment or not, Omer said that it is impossible to say that the chemicals are totally friendly to the environment. They have their own impacts but the Ministry is doing its level best to reduce the impact of chemicals on the environment and to that end the Ministry provided training to the agriculture extension workers.
Almaz Mesele on her part said that though the Ministry in 2013 faced huge challenges, it overcame the problems and registered good achievements but with regard to working on export products such as horticulture and animals, limitations that need improvement are witnessed. To reverse the situation, increasing the utilization of inputs must be redoubled. The 99 percent usage of fertilizer plan accomplishment in the 2012 budget year is encouraging but checking whether the farmers have effectively utilized it or not needs follow up.
Experts said that the agriculture sector is overwhelmed by population pressure. With high reproductive rate parents are forced to provide portion of their lands to their offspring. Children in the rural part of the country due to various reasons drop-out from school. They have no interest in going to the urban centers because they do not have the necessary skills to enable them to get employment.
Therefore, they will continue to repeat their parent’s way of life by staying in the rural part as farmers. Due to the small size of the farmland, enhancing productivity is very hard. Farmers are unable to utilize modern technology and inputs in small farms because it is not economically feasible. Therefore, the government must take other options to liberate farmers from the vicious circle of poverty.
The Ethiopian Herald 12 March 2021
