Agriculture is the key sector in Ethiopia due to its wide socio-economic features and being the cardinal driver of many sectors. Hence, promoting this sector would help the nation attain the long-term growth and food security. On the other hand, complex and widespread poverty, food insecurity, low productivity, famine and degradation of natural resources are among the challenges seriously compromising the sector in the country.
Keeping this in mind, The Ethiopian Herald held talks with Melaku Dendena, an agricultural expert graduated from Haramaya University, to have relevant information about the issue under discussion, peculiarly how to have climate smart and lucrative agriculture.
He said, “The agricultural sector in Ethiopia uses low capital intensive agricultural technologies that results in low productivity and income that constrain farmers’ capacity. Cropping systems in the Ethiopian highlands consist primarily of cereals in rotation with grain legume and oilseed crops. Bread wheat is the dominant crop in wheat belt of Ethiopia and its production is mainly challenged by continuous wheat cropping year after year.”
He further stated that chemical fertilizer faces significant constraints in terms of low availability of credit and limited reach of distribution networks in contexts where appropriate application can enhance yields. In Ethiopia, low and declining soil fertility due to net nutrient extraction by crops is responsible for low agricultural productivity and food insecurity.
Since the current population growth rate in Ethiopia appears to be greater than the agricultural production rate contributing to the food insecurity and environmental degradation, everyone has to focus on contributing their share to help the agriculture sector.
He said as a result of rapidly growing population and lack of proper land use management systems in some parts of the country, Ethiopia has attached due emphasis to the modernizing the sector more than any time else. Given the very high population growth rate and continued degradation of natural resources, the opportunity to increase production through area expansion has to be the prime step. The greatest potential for increasing agricultural productivity is likely to come from increasing yields through efficient and wide spread applications of improved agricultural inputs and related technologies.
However, the vast majority of the farmers in the country continue to use traditional production techniques. Probability of adoption of crop rotation appears to be significantly and positively influenced by education, extension service and farming experience.
Thus the government has to give due attention for training farmers through strengthening and establishing both formal and informal type of farmer’s education, farmer’s training centers, technical and vocational schools. Since extension services are the main instrument used in the promotion of demand for modern technologies, appropriate and adequate extension services should be provided. This could be done by designing appropriate capacity building program to train additional development agents to reduce the existing higher ratio of farmers to development agents as well as to provide refreshment training for development agents.
He said, “The long term viability of agriculture has been affected by soil deterioration resulting from intensive farming practices and unsustainable procedures. The efficacy of using diversified crop rotation as a strategic measure to address this scenario has been shown. Properly prepared organic fertilizers such as farmyard manure, enhance soil structure, water retention, nutrient availability and microbial diversity are important steps to promote agricultural production.”
As to him, crop rotation systems especially dominated by cereals like maize and wheat are intimately linked to soil properties. Ethiopia is one of the well-endowed countries in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of natural resources and agricultural potential. However, natural resource degradation in Ethiopia has been going on for centuries. The major causes of land degradation in Ethiopia are rapid population growth, severe soil loss, deforestation, low vegetative cover and unbalanced crop, and livestock production.
Ethiopia is reported to have the highest rates of soil nutrient depletion through soil erosion in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sheet, rill, and gully erosion are commonly observed in various parts of the country.
A great deal of attention has been paid to soil management practices that promote sustainable soil quality and productivity. Crop rotation is the practice of cultivating different sequences of crops on the same plot of land. It can have a major impact on soil health, due to emerging soil ecological interactions and processes that occur with time. It is a beneficial approach to reduce soil erosion, balance, manage and improve the fertility of the soil, improve soil structure, avoid excessive depletion of soil nutrients, and control weeds, pest, and diseases.
For a better agricultural production, trapping sediment and nutrients, promoting formation of natural terraces over time, preventing flooding of neighboring lands, reducing sedimentation of waterways, streams, and rivers, and improving soil properties or land productivity have to come to the forefront and applied well, he added.
The culture of using traditional and rain fed subsistence-oriented farming system has to be appealingly altered. Besides, the common farming practices like intensive and continuous cultivation, free grazing, and overgrazing need to be addressed as they do have negative repercussion on crop production.
“Though Ethiopia is an agrarian country, imbalance between the population growth and the agricultural production growth rate is one of the pronounced national problems that the country is facing. In addition, the agricultural sector in the country is characterized by inadequate resource endowment, traditional methods of cultivation and husbandry practices, limited access to land, credit and agricultural innovation despite its rich resources,” he opined.
He said it is well known that agriculture is the mainstay of the Ethiopian population and a key sector of the country’s economy. Thus conservation of agriculture needs to be promoted by all actors including the private sector and agricultural offices at all levels. True, the promotion of conservation agriculture technology has been affected by a lack of common understanding as well as other social and environmental issues that like open grazing, as to him.
Ethiopia has a number of adequate policies and strategies pertinent to climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as agriculture and food security.
According to Melaku, Ethiopia has so far been characterized by low agricultural production and productivity and there are significant yield gaps. Such low productivity is emanating from environmental factors such as climate change, soil erosion and land degradation as well as weak extension services. Such an appalling trend is now changing.
There has to be organization responsible for the promotion and technical support of conservation agriculture at all levels. There is a wealth of knowledge held by farmers on traditional soil and water conservation methods that can be useful in supporting the up scaling of climate smart agriculture across the country. These practices need to be well expanded across the nation.
Aside from facilitating economic growth, the agriculture sector also plays a vital role in achieving other developmental goals, such as ensuring food security, promoting employment creation, and improving the living standards of people by lifting them out of extreme poverty.
As to him, the use of indigenous soil fertility management practices as complementary can also render extension programs more relevant and useful, and thus, acceptable to farmers.
Since agriculture has been seen as a low-productivity sector in the country so far, a lot has to be done to transform the sector thereby helping the country meet its dual missions-ensuring food security and ending poverty, the ultimate one, of course. In a nutshell, growth in agriculture contributes to rapid rises in agro-processing and processed food marketing, which not only provides new engines of growth but also an opportunity to foster import substitution.
Furthermore, agriculture and food production are important areas, which have rendered a significant contribution in not only focusing food security and well-being of the individuals, but also in generating employment opportunities. The farming community and other concerned bodies are getting involved in the sector, not only to augment their knowledge and understanding in terms of bolstering production and productivity but also to generating a source of income to sustain economic development and growth in an appropriate manner. No doubt, the development of agriculture has had a direct impact on food security and sustainable economic development.
BY MENGESHA AMARE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 4 JULY 2024
