BY EPHREM ANDARGACHEW
In 2022, Ethiopia has been working to mitigate climate change, ensure food security, windup the annual Green Legacy Initiative campaign, share the vision of the green legacy initiative with the international communities, provide tree seedlings to neighboring countries, launch “Yelemat Tirufat”, and so on.
The Green Legacy Initiative that was launched in June 2019 has been clinched in 2022. The initiative was launched aiming to curb the negative effects of climate change and deforestation across the country. The tree seedlings planting campaign, which took place from 2019 to 2022 during the main rainy season, locally known as KIREMT, had a target to plant a total of 20 billion seedlings. Nevertheless, the country has been able to plant 25 billion tree seedlings in 2022 that surpassed the target of 20 billion.
“The completion of the Green Legacy initiative has demonstrated to us that we are a people that can ideate, plan and accomplish.” “We planned to plant 20 billion tree seedlings from 2019 to 2022 and achieved 25 billion.” “This has been an inspiration for many throughout the world to continue building green culture,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) said.
Since our lives are strongly intertwined with trees and forests, accomplishing the objectives of green legacy initiatives is very important. The initiative was also designed to prevent flooding, ensure food security, avoid environment-related conflicts, and other adverse effects in our hands, he added.
Another major achievement of the year 2022 is sharing the vision of the green legacy initiative with neighboring countries, other international institutions, and organizations. Considering climate change as a regional and global threat, East African countries follow Ethiopia’s green legacy path in the fight against climate change challenges. Ethiopia also has prepared tree seedlings and provided them to Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Somaliland, Kenya , Uganda, and Rwanda.
The Mayor of Djibouti City Fatouma Awaleh Osman explained that the Initiative would enhance the efforts to create a climate change resilient environment in the region in addition to its positive impact to improve the image of the city. The Mayor also expressed gratitude to the government of Ethiopia for providing seedlings noting that the two countries are desirous to further continue the implementation of the Green Legacy Initiative.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is an international organization that announced the importance of the initiative last September 2022. Taking the importance of the Initiative into account, UNDP wants to share the Initiative with 10 African Countries. The UNDP shares the experiences of the Initiative to make a Pan-African issue.
Alhaji Fall, speaking on behalf of Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Africa at the UNDP, described the initiative as a stepping stone to a better future for Ethiopia. Announcing UNDP’s plan to share Ethiopia’s experiences with about 10 other countries and make the Initiative Pan-African, he praised Ethiopia for setting the pace in combating climate change and for fostering community resilience.
South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) Governance Resources Program Head Alex Benkenstein noted that Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative is a good practice to combat the negative effects of climate change. Its lessons and experiences should not only be shared and expanded to the region but also to other parts of the continent.
Indeed, Summer Wheat Development is another milestone achievement of Ethiopia in 2022. Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture Crop Development Director Isaias Lemma elucidated that the country 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.
More specifically, the country has set a goal to achieve the national wheat demand in three years. Hence, in the last three years, wheat production has shifted from rain feed farming to irrigated farming, which used to be produced by farmers.
As a result, Ethiopia not only achieves the demand for national wheat production but also plans to export wheat to East African countries including Djibouti, Kenya, and South Sudan. All East African countries import wheat from other countries, especially Russia and Ukraine. So East African countries, especially neighboring countries such as Kenya, South Sudan and Djibouti have been considered market destinations for Ethiopia, he pointed out.
By drawing lessons from the best practices and experience of the Green Legacy Initiative and avocado development across the country, Ethiopia launched the “Yelemat Tirfat” development campaign that focuses on nutritional opulence this year.
The name “Lemat” is a traditional food container that denotes a relationship between farmers, pastoralists, and consumers. It is about getting adequate nutritional food. The main objective of the campaign is to accelerate efforts to achieve food self-sufficiency at the family and national levels in Ethiopia.
“Ye Lemat Tirufat” is a scheme that implements to improve milk, eggs, poultry, and honey production across the nation. Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture Umar Hussain said that the Yelemat tirufat will be implemented in the coming four years and high-yield outcomes will be expected.
The program aims to increase chicken meat from 90 thousand tons to 296 thousand tons, milk from 6.9 billion liters to 11.7 billion liters, eggs from 3.2 billion to 9.1 billion, and honey from 147 thousand tons to 296 thousand tons. This in turn ensures food security, creates job opportunities, increases dairy production, and exports as well as replaces imported animal products with domestic ones, he explained.
According to him, “Yelemat Tirufat” has now been started with milk, eggs, chicken meat, and honey, and will expand to other products after the evaluation of their results. It is not only about getting adequate nutritional food but also ensuring food self-sufficiency which is directly linked to national sovereignty and dignity.
Taking the growing concern of climate change, global warming, and conservation of energy into account, the country widely introduced electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations to the public in 2022. This helps to reduce carbon emissions that are ejected into the atmosphere which leaves the planet vulnerable to things like pollution and greenhouse gases
National Bank of Ethiopia Governor Dr. Yinager Dessie indicated that the country spends around 2 to 2.5 Billion US dollars annually on fuel/oil importation. The cost of fuel not only consumes national resources but also causes significant climate pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to decrease the number of petrol vehicles while developing a complete infrastructure for electric vehicles.
Minister of Transport and Logistics Minister Dagmawit Moges said that an electric transportation system is one of the key programs included in the 10-year master plan of the transportation sector. Hence, the expansion of the electric transportation system and electric vehicle charging stations will be realized in the country using the untapped potential of energy resources in the country.
The year 2022 is also the year that Ethiopia shows its full commitment to leading biodiversity conservation, fighting against climate change, and ensuring food security. The projects that have been launched throughout the country are environmentally friendly and have significant value to fight the effect of climate change. Particularly, beautifying Sheger increases the quality of life, reducing the effects of climate change and developing green spaces from Entoto to the Akaki wastewater treatment plant. Dine for Ethiopia projects will also improve livelihoods and environmental protection.
Considering the effort of Ethiopia for environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, and the fight against climate change into account, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Outstanding African Leadership Award presented by the American Academy of Achievement and the Global Hope Coalition in Washington DC for his initiative, called Green Legacy, to reforest the country.
These show that Ethiopia has made in 2022 countless benefits in terms of reducing air pollution which will have a severe impact on the health of citizens apart from ensuring economic benefit to the people at large. Therefore, the green legacy initiative, sharing the vision of the initiative to the international communities, Summer Wheat Development, and the “Yelemat Tirfat” effort should continue in 2023 until Ethiopia becomes a place where every citizen of the world prefers to live.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SPECIAL EDITION 1 JANUARY 2023
