• Vow to commercialize agriculture
ADDIS ABABA- State Minister of Finance Admasu Nebebe and Charge d’Affairs of the Embassy of Kingdom of the Netherlands, Thijs Woudstra, signed memorandum of understanding of 50 million USD grant of the latter targeted to the Agricultural Commercialization Cluster Project (ACCP) at the Ministry yesterday.
Admasu said that the grant boosts the long-lasting development cooperation of the nations having significant impact and contribution to agricultural sector development of Ethiopia. “The current development cooperation status of the two nations can be taken as a good model to other development partners,” Admasu said.
Admasu furthered that the ACCP has the overall goal of commercializing smallholder agriculture through an inclusive and environmentally sustainable approach to increase incomes and improve access to domestic and international markets. The project which is already started will be phased out in 2022/23.
It focuses on cereals, oil seeds and horticulture crops, targeting 2.9 million smallholder farmers in Tigrai, Amhara, Oromia and South Nations, Nationalities and Peoples States, Admasu explained.
Admasu also thanked the government of the Kingdom of Netherlands, embassy and its staff for their great efforts of realize the grant signing. Woudstra for his part said that the grant is signed in support of Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s agricultural reform strategies.
“Netherlands is the second greatest agricultural products exporting nation in the world. Therefore, we guarantee to share best experiences on agricultural commercialization,” Woudstra reaffirmed.
The government of Netherlands supports national programs like Health Sector Development Program, Small Scale and Micro Irrigation Support Project, Productive Safety Net Program, Bilateral Ethiopian-Netherland Effort for Food, Income and Trade (BENEFIT) Partnership Project and Public Health Infrastructure Projects besides the support to Agricultural Transformation Agency.
The Ethiopian Herald, June 28/2019
BY DIRRIBA TESHOME
