BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), five major cereals (teff, wheat, maize, and barley) are contributing ensuring food security. There has been substantial growth in cereals in terms of area cultivated, yields, in the last three decades. However, comparing to the international standard yields per hectare is low and overall production is highly vulnerable to extreme climate conditions. Thus, mitigating their vulnerability and improving the production per hectare is essential. It helps ensuring adequate food availability and to increase rural household incomes.
Currently, the Ethiopian government is striving to transform the agricultural sector through undertaking various measures. It is doing its level best through assisting the sector with provision of extension service and mechanized tools. Further to this, it requires generating more from the sector to meet the demand of raw materials along the on-going industrial plants expansion across the country. Following this, the overall performance of the agriculture sector is showing good progress year after year.
The Ministry of Agriculture said that, more than 12.77 million hectares of land has been cultivated by the crop season with a cluster form of cultivation countrywide focused on market-oriented crops such as sesame, wheat, maize and barley.
Sufficient agricultural inputs supply, active engagements of sector professionals, and new agricultural technologies utilization sought to realize the target production.
Accordingly, the introduction of new agricultural technologies and agricultural inputs will raise the production and productivity. Reports are showing that the country’s crop production is growing year after year following the application of latest agricultural technologies and the availability untapped suitable land, among others played crucial role.
In addition, the coordinated environmental protection activities undertaking across the country is also a plus to the on-going agricultural productivity through contributing its part to curb soil degradation and flood damage.
On the other hand, inconsistent weather conditions, the COVID-19 pandemic, some sort of conflict in the northern part of the country, pest occurrence on crops and low level of new agricultural technologies expansion and accessibility throughout the country are some of the sector bottlenecks.
More importantly, the ministry prioritizes that harvesting should be done in a way that minimizes agricultural production waste. In most areas, harvest is expected to begin in early November. Leaders and experts at all levels are working hard to mobilize farmers to harvest ready crops.
During this crop season, the supply and utilization of agricultural inputs needed for crop development, as well as the technical support provided to farmers, were better done by the ministry and other pertinent stakeholders to compensate the reduction in production in insecure areas. Moreover, the favourable distribution of rainfall created better conditions for improved crop production and productivity.
Accordingly, since the harvesting is highly dependent on human labour, each farmer should coordinate his own and his family’s labour as well as coordinate with other farmers to ensure that the harvested crops are kept dry and reduced waste. When crops are harvested in the field, load carefully and use a variety of precautionary measures against pests, animals and unseasonal rains. Agricultural professionals need to pay close attention to the efficient use of time by connecting service providers and consumers and mobilizing the farmer so that harvest mechanization can be widely used in areas where agricultural mechanization can be used.
In case of unseasonal rains, the ministry highlighted that mobilizing the local human resources, including students, government employees, urban residents, etc., helps to harvest the crop timely. Similarly, in areas where there is a security crisis, the contribution of farmers said important to the well-being of the country parallel with harvesting their crop. It is also necessary to strengthen the support and monitoring activities of the farmers, from the federal to the kebele level, to strengthen the support and monitoring activities of the farmers by recognizing the positive effects of reducing the expected harvest during the production season by coordinating the harvesting process.
Experts recommended that controlling post-harvest waste is also fundamental to ensure sector’s competitiveness in the national economy. Post-harvest loss is one of the concerns of ensuring food security and poverty reduction strategies in many developing countries. Thus, the ministry should work hand in hand with pertinent stakeholders and improving farmer’s awareness helps enhancing national capacities in post-harvest management, building and strengthening public-private partnership linkages and developing regulatory guidelines for post-harvest practices. Improving pesticide, herbicide and other agricultural inputs supply expected to advance production and productivity in the upcoming crop season.
According to a 2021 study conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Ethiopia, post-harvest loss of maize, wheat, haricot bean, and sorghum is 25, 18, 19 and 27 percent respectively. Losses occur between productions at the farm level up to the dining table. As part of the implementation of the Post-Harvest Management Strategy in Grains, the government of Ethiopia approved duty-free tax for post-harvest handling technologies and raw materials such as galvanized sheet metal for fabricating metal silos.
It is obvious that Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa and the main stay of the nation economy of the country is agriculture alas more than 80 percent of the population is engaged in this sector. However, due to less utilization of technology, inputs such as fertilizer and pest and herbicides, the yield per hectare is very small even by the sub Saharan African countries standard. Worse to these, in time of severe weather condition induced by climate change and global warming, the sector faces uncertainty.
In order to change the situation to the better the government tried its level best by providing small scale farmer’s extension services, supply inputs and supporting the creation of viable value chain. In addition to these, the government introduced new farming technology through doing the farm work through clustering. In such system, small scale farmers who grow similar crops instead of growing fragmentally, they are fostered to plow and grow by combining their plot to produce in the large scale manner. In such a way farmers coordinate their labor, knowledge, skill and capital for the better outcome. It is proved that, such approach could enable farmers to raise their productivity and amount of production.
In the highland parts of the Oromia, Amhara and Southern Nation Nationalities regions the practice of cluster farming proved that it is feasible in enhancing productivity. The 10 years perspective home grown economic growth plan stipulates clustering farm to be scale upped. The production of wheat and maize through such practice proved to bring better result. If it is continued, it is predicted that at least substituting the importation of wheat by local products could be possible.
As mentioned above Ethiopia is a populous country in Africa but it is not self-sufficient in ensuring food security which is embarrassing. While it has excess arable land with sufficient water resources, it is un-realistic depending on outside aid for food. Therefore, working hard to raise agricultural productivity for self –sufficiency is vital.
Wheat farms in the central highland part of the country
The Ethiopian Herald 17 July 2022
