BY MENGESHA AMARE
Homegrown economic reform is unequivocally of instrumental in helping Ethiopia declare independence and bring about sustainable growth. That is why the government is these days well capitalizing on reinvigorating local capacities in production, land preparation, human capital promotion and all rounded coordination towards attaining the long aspired goal of making Ethiopia an affluent state in Africa and beyond.
The country is these days particularly since the very advent of the recent reform firmly committed to enlist itself in the category of middle income countries within the shortest time possible.
The proper implementation of a number of mega projects, commencement of wheat export after quenching local consumption, the rise of generating foreign currency from sesame and coffee production is a case in point in this regards. Yes, the government has given due emphasis to all these invaluable projects and working from dawn to dusk with a view to making Ethiopia a hallmark of African independence and economic emancipation.
Taking all these steps towards progress and real change, this writer approached Mekonnen Muleta, who graduated in Agro Economic from Haramaya University for comment with regard to the journey the country has been trekking to declare economic independence. He said, “If a given country is economically empowered, militarily well equipped, socially prettily harmonized and politically stabled as well as matured, no another country could attempt to infringe its sovereignty and territorial integrity let alone twist its leaders’ arms to sever their interests at the expense of its comprehensive wellbeing and autonomy.”
As to him, economic empowerment is a viable and eternal weapon to get Ethiopia unwaveringly prospered thereby it would not bow to those which consider themselves as superpower and try to surpass its un-alienated boundary.
According to Mekonnen, Ethiopia’s leaders have now well comprehended the impact of economic empowerment and work hard for real change and meaningful improvement of citizens’ lives. Unequivocally, Ethiopia needs to explore domestic capacities to curtail foreign dependency and ensure evolutionary economic freedom.
It is crystal clear that he said the world’s first Arabica coffee was introduced by Ethiopia. Although delayed rains in the southern part of the country are noticed without having a significant impact other than to extend harvest in the region, the weather in 2021/22 has been generally favorable throughout the production year with minimal insect and disease infestation in the coffee growing regions.
As to him, Ethiopia is the world’s third-largest Arabica coffee producer and the greatest producer of coffee in Africa as of 2022, with a production that has slowly increased from 6 million to over 8.15 million bags over the past ten years. The coffee seedlings that were recently planted and grew for five to ten years have now started bearing fruits and keep on producing.
The production of coffee is anticipated to increase by 100,000 bags in 2022/ 23 to 8.25 million bags (495,000 MT) taking the favorable weather, low insect and disease pressure as well as sufficient rain into account. It is well remembered that in comparison to the 2019–20 forecasts, which were 7.6 million bags, the estimate for coffee output in 2020–21 increased to 8.15 million bags. Besides, the increased coffee producing and the introduction of new trees for harvesting can be taken as the key causes of the increase in production volume.
He further said that the coffee production in the country has been increasing at alarming rate and the government has also attached due emphasis to it. Citing a certain export, Mekonnen said that Ethiopia’s coffee export is anticipated to increase and more than 15 million smallholder farmers and other industry participants rely on coffee as their primary source of income in Ethiopia.
The increased yields seen in the coffee producing sites particularly in the southern and western parts of the country, the introduction of new trees for harvesting are the key causes for the increase in production volume.
Not only is Ethiopia rich in fertile land growing cash crops like coffee, sesame and other lucrative ones, but it is also affluent in various tangible and intangible heritages and resources which can potentially be transacted and well cashed thereby supporting the economic aspect of citizens in one way or another.
He said if the country is in a passion of gaining utmost benefit out of particularly the former coffee production, there are a lot of activities to be well dealt with. He said, “Farmers working on the area have to be empowered and helped get reasonable benefit in return. This means mechanisms are expected to be devised to help farmers contact concerned bodies from either the ministry at national level of state agriculture bureaus so as to curtail the illicit move of brokers; this does have dual merits. It helps farmers get what they deserve on the one hand and enables the nation to garner foreign currency supporting the national revenue on the other.”
Apart from capitalizing on coffee production, which is very rewarding right these days, the government has to well reinvigorate the homegrown economic reform commenced recently.
He said, “Ethiopia is endowed with more than what other countries in Africa even beyond do have. What matters here is our working culture and sense of belongingness to our country has to be well nurtured and boosted.”
As to him, a range of mechanisms like modernizing the agriculture sector, embarking on export promotion and import substitution and promoting the homegrown economy are the viable mechanisms that could potentially help the nation declare economic emancipation. Another person whom this writer had a stay with is Asnake Worede. He graduated in Economics and is working as a private economic consultant in Addis Ababa.
He said that he has closely followed all the activities undertaken by the government especially revolving around economic issues. As to him, the incumbent is working at much as it can to get the country prospered though a long journey retains to be stridden.
According to Asnake, Ethiopians at home and from abroad have to move in unison to make their country alert in using its resource, be they are refrain or manmade, to bring about a meaningful difference peculiarly in the economic sector. Without a shadow of doubt, he said, economically developed countries do have minimal criminal acts, tolerable corruption steps and embezzlement inertia.
He said, “To the surprise of everyone, if Ethiopia had been an economically developed nation, it wouldn’t have been exposed to the very organized and calculatingly framed conspiracy especially over the last two years plus following the war broke out in the northern part of the country. True, economic development is a guarantee for being pretty independent of course coupled with other indispensible social and political portions.”
The subsistence rain fed farming and livestock production in which the majority of Ethiopians have been engaged has to be well transformed and made well mechanized to help the country hit its set target being a middle income economic nation within the shortest time possible. Yes, of the principal crops Ethiopia has possessed and grown well like cash crops, pulses, oil seeds, potato, sugarcane and some vegetables, coffee is the largest export earner and a leading one.
Needless to state, the Ethiopian government has embarked on a ten-year economic development plan (2021-2030) where agriculture is on the top priority sectors. Besides, Ethiopia’s development plan has laid out enhancing agricultural production and productivity as one of the major strategic pillars.
He said, “As Ethiopia is endowed with abundant agricultural resources and has diverse agro-ecological zones, and agriculture is the mainstay of Ethiopia’s economy, the sector needs to be well transformed to back the industrial effort and ultimately help Ethiopia become independent state in all aspects”.
The Ethiopia Herald December 15/2022
