ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia and Djibouti agreed to work jointly for the shipment of agricultural inputs from Djibouti port to the hinterland so as to reach the beneficiaries on time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia told The Ethiopian Herald.
Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Nebiyat Getachew said that both parties agreed on swift transportation of agricultural inputs especially fertilizers from the port to the hinterland so that farmers can get agricultural imputes on time.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew made his first official visit to Djibouti and held talks with high level government officials on ways of strengthening the historic mutual relation between the two countries. The discussions also covered many arrays of bilateral socioeconomic and political issues.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, as part of the effort to prepare for the upcoming Meher agriculture season [from June to August], the government has purchased 1.3 million metric tons of fertilizer.
“Recently, 625,000 metric tons of fertilizer have already brought in and are being distributed to farmer unions. It is also stated that the Ministry is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport to swiftly bring up the fertilizers from Djibouti Port to the country.”
The immediate delivery of agricultural inputs helps the country which set to cultivate 12.7 million hectares of land and targeted to yield 406 million quintals from major crops during the upcoming agriculture season which begins in June 2019.
The country has currently been utilizing about 16 million hectares of land of around 30 million hectares of the total potential. As to documents, the government incurs around one billion USD annually for importing fertilizer and wheat.
The Ethiopian Herald, May 30/2019
BY TSEGAYE TILAHUN
