Agriculture is the mainstay of a large proportion of the population and economic development for Ethiopia. For this end the government is working strenuously to bring about rapid economic development by enhancing agricultural productivity. One of the measures being taken to increase the productivity is transforming the sector.
There are many pastoralists who are participating on livestock and fishery projects. Their best aim is increasing their wealth. And they are performing a lot of activities to be more productive. GTP II also has aimed on raising meat, milk, hides and skins parallel with increasing pastoralists’ benefit from the sector.
Meanwhile creating value chain is an important action that must be taken by the government and NGOs. Supply chains are changing rapidly, with transactions increasingly based on chains that involve coordinated links between farmers, traders, processors and retailers.
The traditional way in which food is produced, without farmers having a clear and prior information about when, to whom and at what price they are going to sell their crops, is being replaced by practices more akin to manufacturing processes, with far greater coordination between farmers, processors, retailers and others in the supply chain. Farmers increasingly produce to meet the requirements of buyers rather than relying on markets to absorb what they produce.
Speaking for The Ethiopian Herald Dr. Tilahun Amede, principal scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) said value chain can link farmers with domestic trader; retailer; a leading farmer; cooperatives; agro processor and also with exporters to ensure long term sustainability.
Ethiopia has a long story in farming system yet there is a very big challenge in creating value chain for producers. As to him the distance of farming areas from the major towns is one of the facts that affect the value chain. This will perhaps forbid producers to access the appropriate inputs and bring their product to the market with the appropriate profitable market price. Lack of capacity of farmers about the value chain is also the other challenge affecting their productivity. They usually fear the market risk.
Indeed the government’s role is more on supplying side, the private sectors should be the major players in creating value chain and they should also involve extensively. There should be an incentive for the farmers to produce quality product that responding to the market demand. Inputs, technical assistance, transport and packaging can be supplied for the producers. It will help the farmers and pastoralists to offer additional market in addition to fresh market. And also if processors often provides transport, it will increase potential for farmers to sell larger volumes and provide secure market at agreed price he added.
Dr. Tilahun also noted that, increasing income of farmers and pastoralists from their product through creating value chain will help to increase productivity so far. For instance pastoralists are benefited more while they sell their products directly for marketers rather than selling for brokers. Recently we have seen that they were selling their livestock products with a very good price on some part of the country.
Yaregal Hailu, manager of Kobo Girana Valley Development Program at Amhara Region said creating value chain has direct and indirect advantage. It directly helps the farmers and pastoralists on increasing their income. Similarly, it will indirectly help government and marketers. The more benefiting producers the better motivation they will have therefore productivity will be increased. And it will help the country to have high quality products which are ready for export. Besides, marketers can easily access quality products with fair market price he noted.
According to him creating a value chain is not only a duty and need of the farmers and pastoralists, but also of the government, NGOs, development organizations, private sectors who are engaging on agriculture sector and all other stakes should play their pivotal role. This will also help for achieving the GTP II and SDG.
The market for organic products has grown substantially, and in a context of expanding demand, marketing opportunities exist for developing countries to export organic meat and dairy products. Unfortunately for smallholders, meeting the certification requirements and production quality standards of the organic market are extremely demanding, and at present there is only limited involvement of developing countries in the marketing of organic meat and dairy products.
However, by working with natural processes and making use of locally available assets, poor smallholder farmers can increase the productivity of their farms and avoid dependence on expensive external inputs.
Therefore according to Tilahun, the government of Ethiopia should take lots of tasks for the value chain. First it could make sure that the market access is well improved especially by improving the infrastructure. Second it should help producers in their production and creating equal and fair market. In this case it must be sure that good farmers with good qualities are available in the market. Thirdly it should have a designed policy that encourage exporters and international markets.
Additionally the government is responsible for increasing producers’ capacity about the issue and making continual quality control on both inputs and the final products. He also avowed that all agricultural sectors must take the good experience of coffee market in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Herald, June 29/2019
BY Hizkel Hailu
