Ethiopia is an agrarian country and 80% of its population’s livelihood relies on the agriculture sector. As the sector is rain-fed and mainly traditional, it has remained subsistence. Due to the low yield of agriculture, the nation is still labeled as a food-insecure country. To enhance agriculture productivity, the government has taken various measures and among others, expanding irrigation farms, mechanization of the sector and supplying modern inputs can be mentioned. To that end, the government established the Ministry of Irrigation and Lowland Areas.
Mulugeta Melese is a senior irrigation Engineer working at the Ministry of Agriculture. As to him, Water is mankind’s most vital and versatile natural resource and has played essential role in Ethiopian society as it is an input to almost all production systems. Water is also considered as vital resource for irrigation.
Irrigation can be defined as an artificial application of water to soil for the purpose of supplying the moisture essential in the plant root-zone to prevent stress that may cause reduced yield and/or poor quality of harvest of crops. This is a universal action made by human to apply water for growing crops, especially during dry seasons where there is a shortage of rainfall. Water applications to crop fields are of various types.
According to the report of Ministry of Agriculture for the 2023 production year, Small-scale irrigation is now a policy priority in Ethiopia as a means of ensuring household food security, adapting to climate change, alleviating rural poverty, and boosting economic growth by increasing agricultural production and productivity. Although Ethiopia has 3.7 million hectares of irrigable land potential, only less than five percent of it has been utilized.
Small scale household farms are the main units for development in Ethiopia and main drivers of Irrigation Development. All the irrigation development partners work for the betterment of these households. The Homegrown Economic Development Program introduced three years ago and its driving strategies make use of favorable conditions for the irrigation development.
Most of the irrigation partners are from international community up to localities that have significant contributions towards food security and poverty reductions at household and national levels.
Irrigation in Ethiopia is considered as a basic strategy to alleviate poverty and thereby ensuring food security. It is useful to transform the rain-fed agricultural system which depends on rainfall into the combined rain-fed and irrigation agricultural system. This is believed to be the most prominent way of sustainable development in the country. However, the development of irrigation practices in Ethiopia has to be investigated so as to seriously know the history of irrigation emergence and its subsequent developments.
Feleke Tefera is working in Food and Agriculture Organization /FAO/ as an agriculture expert. As to him, the benefits of irrigation that includes; increasing food production in arid and semi-arid regions, enhancing food production, promoting economic growth and sustainable development, creating employment opportunities, and improving living conditions of small-scale farmers. As a result, irrigation contributes to poverty reduction and protects the environment from degradation and pollution. Furthermore, it increases subsurface water levels and recharges groundwater.
Small, medium and large scale irrigation infrastructure needs to be developed in the country. This helps to produce export commodities that would earn foreign exchanges and provides raw materials to the local industries. Though most of the irrigation development in Ethiopia is expressed through an expansion of small-scale irrigations, medium and large scale irrigation developments are also needed to be taken into consideration.
Currently, the cultivation of wheat in the vast areas of various regions through irrigation brought a glimpse of hope to attain food self-sufficiency. Shifting the seasonal cultivation in to all year through irrigation farm is undergoing.
The Ministry of Agriculture recently announced that summer wheat production through irrigation system has enabled to achieve not only ensuring food security but also serves for exporting wheat.
According to State Minister of Agriculture, Melese Mekonen, exporting wheat production indicates that the country is attaining self -sufficiency in wheat production and changes the nation’s image which regarded as food recipient from abroad for ever and raises its pride.
Exporting wheat has opened a new chapter to Ethiopia. However, some complain that the government has to make sure that it fulfilled the domestic demand before engaging on exporting wheat. But the government officials announced that, Ethiopia began exporting wheat after it reaffirmed that surplus product which is more than the domestic demand is produced.
Based on the professionals detailed study in the year 2022/23, the domestic demand was 97 million quintals of wheat. But 129 million quintals of wheat was produced. Therefore, the surplus product, 32 million quintals of wheat was exported.
According to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Economic Advisor, Girma Biru, exporting wheat is relied on detailed study of the nation’s production capacity and export is conducted after meeting the domestic demand.
As to him, Ethiopia produces such amount of wheat firstly to meet the local demand and next to export and it has undergone through repeated assessments. He further said that wheat harvested in the end of last year and the wheat that has been harvested in this dry season is estimated to be more than the annual consumption of wheat at national level. Hence, the surplus product is exported
As to the State Minister of Agriculture, Melese Mekonen, these all indicate how the nation has a potential not only for domestic food self-sufficiency but also in exporting wheat to the foreign market.
According to Mulugeta, the Senior Irrigation Engineer, some of the challenges witnessed in irrigation development can be explained as technical constraints and knowledge gaps and among others inadequate awareness of irrigation water management as in irrigation scheduling techniques, water saving irrigation technologies, water measurement techniques, operation and maintenance of irrigation facilities.
In addition to these, inadequate knowledge on improved and diversified irrigation agronomic practices; shortage of basic technical knowledge on irrigation pumps, drip irrigation system, sprinkler irrigations, surface and spate irrigation methods; scheme based approach rather than area/catchments based approach for the development; inadequate baseline data and information on the development of water resources; lack of experience in design, construction and supervision of quality irrigation projects; and low productivity of existing irrigation schemes are among the challenges.
Moreover, inadequate community involvement and consultation in scheme planning, construction and implementation of irrigation development, Poor economic background of users for irrigation infrastructure development, to access irrigation technologies and agricultural inputs, in which the price increment is not affordable to farmers.
Experts say that the use of irrigation is very important as it enables farmers to employ agricultural lands multiple times in a year.
In time of drought, it helps to alleviate water shortage during poor rain in the dry season. However, in the country, insignificant portion of land is irrigated as compared to the available water and arable land. Most of the irrigated areas in Ethiopia are cultivated by maize, sorghum, teff and wheat.
As to Mulugeta, to practice irrigation farm sustainably, the involvement of private sector is a must. When the Ministry of Agriculture conducts experiments on the cultivation of wheat in small areas, better outcomes are witnessed sooner and the private sector follows its footsteps and involves in full-fledged manner.
Currently, various questions are forwarded by the private entities on how they access to selected seeds and other inputs and conducive technologies. In the coming years, it is expected that private sector will engage in irrigation farming with commitment in collaboration with other stakeholders. In addition to supplying its products to local market, the private sector will engage in export market.
Wheat also served as inputs for food industries. Macaroni, Pasta and breads are some of the products of food industries though sometimes challenged by shortage of inputs. This problem can be resolved by enhancing the production of wheat through irrigation. In so doing, exportation can be attained on top of meeting the local demand, it was learned.
BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2023
