“The government has a strong commitment to boost green economy through advancing agriculture and improving forest coverage,” was a statement made by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on a wrap up occasion of a two day long discussion forum organized to inspire federal and regional administrators in the new program which the government planned to mobilize the public at large to get committed for agricultural productivity state.
This summer, various develo pment activities would be done to improve the reduction of national growth induced by increment in inflation and imbalance between import and export. Furthermore, there are also additional factors that hinder country’s economic growth such as foreign currency shortage, loan burden, unemployment and internal displacement among others, said Binalf Andualem from the Office of the Prime Minister. Ethiopia’s economy has shown a slight reduction from the 10 percent in the first Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) to 8.3 in the first three years of the second GTP.
He noted that if the country delays to solve the problems, it might face economic, social and political crisis. As to him, as a short term solution, the government planned this summer to mobilize the public at large for agricultural activities, a sector which comprised about 80 percent of the population.
To this end, a task force led by the prime minister and incorporated representatives from ministries of agriculture, water, irrigation and electricity, transport and the office of the ruling party has been organized at federal level. Similarly, regional leaders, woreda and zonal level administrators would be expected to form their own task forces at regional state level until the mid of this June to rule similar task force in each respective state, according to Binalf.
The agricultural sector will be strengthened and lead nation’s economy for the next 30 to 40 years. Therefore, strengthening the sector is an important measure to improve productivity. In this regard, the government through the ministry of agriculture has conducted a survey to identify the strong and weak sides of the sector’s implementation over the past ten years, he said.
The government has a strong initiation to boost crop production specifically and the sector in general. Therefore, the government has been undertaking budget allocation, assisting research and agricultural technology institutions and providing agricultural inputs, the PM told. He also stated that the government has spent the higher budget to the agriculture sector especially for the expansion of farming irrigation.
He underlined that the government has given the needed attention to the sector and allocated about 20 billion Birr for small and medium scale irrigation projects. The wide lowland areas of the country would be cultivated to mechanized farming places.
It would also support the sector in finance, technology and professional advice. The research institutions especially the universities ought to specialize in agriculture so that they can hasten the sector advancement with skilled manpower. In addition, the specialization of the universities would help to modernize the sector with biotechnology, according to Abiy.
On the other hand, the government is working to produce agricultural inputs in the country. There is also a plan to boost foreign direct investment in agro industry to increase processed and exportable agricultural products. The government has planned to improve market linkage for agricultural products. Various studies are also conducted to point out schemes to preserve the freshness of perishable goods, he expressed.
Accordingly, specific product conserving shades would be constructed in various cities to keep the freshness of perishable agricultural commodities. As to him, advancing the agriculture sector that embraced the higher population would enable the nation to improve quality of life.
“The government commitment to mobilize the public for the agricultural productivity is part of the plan to avert importing food.” Country’s agriculture should develop in lined with science and latest knowledge. The government would facilitates conditions to participate private owners in the area,” he underscored.
According to Agriculture Minister Umer Hussein, currently, country’s crop production has reached 306 million quintal per annum of which 255 million is main food crop product. Accordingly, the main food crops productivity has been increased by 26 quintal per hectare. On the other hand the level of poverty in rural area reduced from 45 to 25 percent. Last year, the country has produced about 58 and 22 million quintals of industrial and exportable crop products respectively. In addition, six billion liters of milk and two million tonnes of raw meat also produced.
In general, the agriculture sector is growing by five percent. However despite the increment in main food crops product, ensuring food security at household level is still low. In the other way, if the country expand the best experiences of model farmers, it can respectively improve productivity and increase 108 million quintal extra crop product per year. The government expects to collect some 2.8 million quintals of main crop products this Meher season, Umer said.
Country’s rain fed agriculture [which uses only 10 percent farming irrigation] and low usage of fertilizer and selected seed hinder the sector’s growth. Underdeveloped mechanized farming that accounts about 17.5 million smallholding farmers of which 11 percent of them are pastoralists and semi pastoralists is additional factor side by side to the higher numbers of aged and uneducated farmers.
According to the premier, some people still thought that if the agriculture accounts the higher number of country’s population, it means that it creates numerous jobs. However, most of the farmer’s children waste their time on the land of their parents to produce the same amount of agricultural product per year. That’s why food shortage is yet not falling especially in rural area. Therefore, mobilizing the public for the proper exploitation of the sector resource is a must to improve the livelihood of the rural people in particular and subsidize country’s economy in general. To this end, all stakeholders especially administrators, experts and the farmers should closely work together.
The Ethiopian Herald June 4, 2019
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
