BY DARGIE KAHSAY
Three years ago, a Desert Locust swarm invasion threatened agricultural crops in Ethiopia. As the swarm covered huge areas in six regional states, it was impossible to control the invasion using hand and vehicle sprayers. At that time, Ethiopia owned no aircraft for aerial sprayers to control the pest and was forced to rent aircrafts from abroad.
When I visited the Agricultural Science Exhibition at the Science Museum on Monday this week, I learnt that, currently Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) owns five aircrafts for controlling Desert Locust and other pests. This happened in less than three years and I was surprised by the dramatic change. I talked to agricultural experts from the MoA at the exhibition and they told me that in addition to the aircrafts used to control pests, MoA owns agricultural drones for different purposes mainly to survey and detect pests and desert locust swarms.
The purpose of the agricultural drones is to gather information about pests by assessing and surveying for early warning mechanism to control pests at early stages before their invasion expands to other areas. The change in the agriculture sector is not confined to the change in building technological capacity to control pests; the sector is in holistic transformation and introducing new technologies and other modern ways of farming. After I visited the Agri-Science exhibition at the Science Museum, I realized that the agriculture sector in Ethiopia is in real and holistic transformation and the developments and new technologies in the sector are really impressive.
On the premise of the Science Museum, outside of the building, modern agricultural farming technologies are on display from the simplest to the latest multipurpose combiners and other farming technologies. In the museum, private and governmental organizations are displaying their new products that are helpful to modernize the agriculture. Research outcomes, new innovations, new technologies, and new way of farming, new ideas and outcomes are displayed at the museum with the goal of improving the agriculture and the productivity of the sector.
The exhibition organized by Ministry of Agriculture with the motto “from lab to the field” aims at promoting the agricultural transformation. And there are projects displaying the current agricultural activities and projections like smart farming and integrated farming systems. The first exhibited project that fascinated me during my visit was an integrated farming project presented by MoA. Bekele Yehualashet is Fish Expert at MoA and an exhibitor at the Science Museum. I found him briefing visitors about the Integrated Aqua Farming projects presented by the Ministry, aquaculture and aquaponics.
The integrated aquaculture system of farming project, according to Bekele is a sustainable method of producing fish and vegetables by integrating it with poultry in a small place. This way of farming is easy that can be practicable at household levels in their gardens. It is an eco-friendly and self-sufficient way of harvesting fish, vegetables, plants and conducting poultry in a limited space. As to the expert, it helps to produce multiple products in a limited area and limited resources and the products are organic as they use natural organic ingredients. This way of farming is an easy method to apply in urban farming and households can apply within a limited area with limited resources in their gardens for their consumption.
The second way of integrated farming is aquaponics which is growing vegetables and fish in harmony circulating the used water by purifying it naturally. The vegetables grow without soil using the organic wastes from the water used for fishes. This way of farming can be applied for commercial purposes at larger scale, according to Bekele. It is a way of farming linking plants and fishes. The second project that impressed me was a smart farming project presented by Bejai Industrial Engineering and Solutions, a private company engaged in the production, assembling and maintenance of agricultural machineries. Teklay Gebreyohanis is a Mechanical Engineer at the company. He was briefing visitors about the project and the company’s technological products in the agriculture sector.
He told The Ethiopian Herald that the company was in the business of producing different agricultural machineries for the past 14 years, producing over 70 different types of fodder processing machines, coffee processing machines, juice dryer machine and other machines in the agriculture sector. In the agri-science exhibition, Bejai presented a smart farming project developed by the experts of the company. “Beyond producing, assembling and maintaining agricultural machines, Bejai is working to introduce Smart Agriculture in Ethiopia using software technology,” Teklay said adding that the company tested the smart farming system on its own agricultural field and the outcome was impressive.
According to him, the idea is using software application, already developed by the experts of the company; it aims to control an agricultural field using the connected system. “With the application using internet of things, the system is interco nnected with sensors in the field. The owner of the farm can check the moisture of the soil and safety of the crop. It helps to check and control any pest in the farm,” Teklay noted. In addition to controlling the farm, the sensors already report the situation of the crop and it assists to easily detect whether the crop needs irrigation or any chemicals.
As to the expert, the owner of the farm can easily manage the whole process and even instruct the system to irrigate the crop as there are prepared water pumps in the field. In addition, the system also considers using balloons to irrigate farmlands especially in mountainous topographies. “We exhibited the prototype of smart farming system here in the exhibition as a final product, not only as an idea,” he stated adding that “the company is ready to install it in farmlands if users decide to use it.”
Meanwhile, I found Hermela Biksegn at the exhibition briefing visitors about Eco Green Organic Fertilizer. According to Hermela, Eco Green is producing natural organic liquid fertilizer which is suitable for the soil, plants and crops. “The fertilizer is fully natural and have no side effects for the crops as it is free from chemicals,” Hermela stated. According to Hermela, the naturally prepared liquid fertilizer can be used for all types of crops and it contains natural contents helpful for the growth and health of the crops. The company is working with different governmental and non-governmental organizations to develop the production of the natural organic fertilizer, as to her.
I take the above projects as prototypes displayed at the exhibition. There are scientific research outcomes, local innovated products, different agricultural technologies and products in the agriculture sector. At the exhibition, over 70 different companies are displaying their products and research and innovation products, digitalization efforts in the agriculture sector, agricultural financial solutions and other modern technological products are also presented for visitors. The sample projects at the exhibition are indicators of the current trend of Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation. Ethiopian Government gives due attention to the transformation of the agriculture sector and promoting innovations and technologies in the agriculture sector.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 2 JUNE 2023
