BY EPHREM ANDRGACHEW
In Ethiopia, there is a gap between crop production and supply due to the increasing demand in the urban population, and changes in food preferences such as bread, biscuits, pasta, noodles, and porridge which are easy and quick to prepare. Hence, crop, especially wheat cultivation and production is the most important step for food security across the country.
Taking the enormous potential to increase Ethiopia’s crop production into account, the government of Ethiopia, following the political reform of the country in 2018, has identified top priorities that can increase the production and productivity of cereals through small and large-scale irrigation development, financing agricultural inputs, encouraging cluster farming, and reducing post-harvest loss.
Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed said that Ethiopia has vast cultivable land in all corners. If it utilized the natural resources properly by applying modern technologies, it is possible not only to fulfill the wheat demand of the country but also to start exporting wheat to other nations.
Indeed, various efforts have been underway to increase the productivity of the agricultural sector. Hence, a significant portion of arable land in the country has been cultivated with the aid of a mechanized farming system. Besides, more than 45 percent of the total land has been included in the cluster farming system, a system that creates real profit by merging several smallholder farms. Accordingly, the nation has secured some 336 million quintals of crop production from the 2021 autumn harvesting seasons.
State Minister of Agriculture Dr. Mandefro Nigussie explained that crop, especially wheat production is producing good results, adding that the efforts to replace imported wheat with domestic production have shown great results. Because Ethiopia is working to accelerate its productivity for self-sufficiency while targeting import substitution ahead.
Furthermore, the productivity of wheat across the country is promising. The government has been focusing on this development project by providing technical and logistical support to irrigate wheat development areas in a coordinated manner, he said,
In fact, Ethiopia has abundant arable land with enough water resources for summer wheat development. Considering the wheat production capacity and result of this year, Djibouti and Kenya have shown keen interest to import from Ethiopia. Therefore, to fulfill the wheat development result of the country, it is important to work on post-harvest management systems.
Various studies have shown that the country loses over a quarter of the total crop produced during the post-harvest season each year. Because the country lacks a post-harvest management system for handling, storing, and transporting agricultural products after harvest.
As stated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for Africa, post-harvest management is a priority area of FAO. FAO estimates that in Africa alone the total quantitative food loss has been estimated to be over 100 million metric tons every year. Global food losses and waste are estimated at 1.3 billion metric tons, equivalent to over 30 percent of the total food produced for human consumption, and it is estimated that global food wastage could feed up to 1.6 billion people annually.
Although the importance of post-harvest management has been established in Ethiopia, it still requires collaborative efforts to strengthen the action chain that produces, transports, and all other related activities. Taking necessary steps during the post-harvest period will help to handle, and produce preserving quality, quantity, and safety of the crops. For wheat producers and traders, maintaining quality is important since it directly affects the price of the wheat.
Since minimizing the post-harvest loss is not different from increasing productivity, efforts are underway to minimize post-harvest loss. Especially, the government is undertaking comprehensive measures toward reducing the existing post-harvest loss. The government is also encouraging farmers to use combiners and appropriate technologies to harvest and standardize wheat production, State Minister Dr. Mandefro said.
The government’s due attention to wheat development and minimizing post-harvest loss is encouraging to the country in general and to the farmers in particular. Apart from that, the government should strengthen the post-harvest interventions by supporting farmers, developing and implementing robust national policy, technology advancement, and adopting improved market infrastructure as well as institutional capacity building, among others. This way Ethiopia can achieve the intended wheat and other crop production export result in short term.
Moreover, post-harvest management allows the effective planning of how to sustainably manage finite resources for the future. In other words, through effective post-harvest management, action can be done now so that the environment can sustain future generations.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2022
