1.2.1 Program Objectives
The principal aim of the program is to support the government's strategy for agricultural growth, as articulated in its GTP and agricultural PIF. This requires both increases in productivity and creating access to market. The program also emphasizes that growth should be inclusive and therefore would stress the participation of women and youth. Sustainable growth requires that due attention is given to natural resource management (land and water) to end the challenges of alarmingly diminishing natural resources in such areas in response to the national and global issue of climatic change, and that institutional development emphasizes sustainable structures and incentives.
Therefore, the Program Development Objective (PDO) is to increase agricultural productivity and commercialization of small holder farmers targeted by the Program and also contributes to dietary diversity and consumption at HH level.
Agricultural productivity is defined as yields for selected key crops and animal products. Commercialization is defined in terms of proportion of marketed production of selected key crops and animal products by small holder farmers.
The program would also contribute to the higher level objectives of poverty reduction, change mitigation and adaptation through supported CSA initiatives.
PDO Level Results Indicators
The following indicators will be used to measure progress towards achieving the PDO, with detailed descriptions in Annex II:
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Percentage increase in yield for selected crops in targeted households (benefiting directly from the Program; disaggregated by Male Headed Households (MHH) and Female Headed Households (FHH));
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Percentage increase in yield for selected animal products in targeted households (benefiting directly from the Program; disaggregated by MHH and FHH);
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Proportion of production sold by targeted households for selected crops (targeted households are benefiting directly from the Program; disaggregated by MHH and FHH));
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Proportion of animal production sold by targeted beneficiaries for selected products (targeted beneficiaries are benefiting directly from the Program; disaggregated by male and female (FHH and married female).
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Household dietary diversity: - increase in average number of food groups consumed at HH level5.
1.2.2 Program Target Areas
The focus is on those areas in Ethiopia which have the highest growth potential, based primarily on agro-ecological conditions and access to markets. It maintains to continue to operate in the all 96 woredas targeted in AGP I to consolidate achievements as well as leverage strengthened capacities attained during the second phase. In addition, AGP-II expands to other 61 new woredas of similar agro-ecological conditions to scale up the program. Accordingly, three more regions and one city administration – Benishangul Gumuz, Gambella, Harari and Dire Dawa respectively have been added to AGP II, and additional woredas have been included in the existing four AGP Regions. Thus, AGP II will operate in seven regional states and one city administration that counts to 157 woredas (Table 1). Selection of the new target areas in AGP- II applied the same principle used in AGP I which are :
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Access to markets (access to cities of 50,000 population or over in less than 5 hours);
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Natural resource endowment (factors to consider are good rainfall distribution with annual average of 700 mm or over);
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Suitable rainfall and soil for crop and fodder production;
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Potential for development of small-scale irrigation facilities;
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Institutional plurality of service providers, including good basis and growth of viable cooperatives and farmer groups; and existing partnership engagements with private sector, and
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Willingness and commitment to participate (supportive environment; performance of programs/programs supported by other donors).
In addition to the above selection criteria, the new program has been responsive to region’s request to consider PSNP woredas if they were able to demonstrate that they have high potential for growth. AGP II also considered woreda clustering as a criterion for selection to develop synergies for growth as well as woredas capacity to manage the multiple funding was kept in mind too.
The distribution of number of AGP II woredas among Regional’s States is in accordance to the share of population of respective regions considering the 2007 census, the agro-ecological factors being remain similar. Following this methodology, 62 woredas are allocated to Oromiya, 41 woredas are to Amhara, 35 woredas to SNNPR, 13 woredas to Tigray, 2 woredas to Benishangul Gumuz, 2 woredas to Gambella and 1 woreda each for Harari and Dire Dawa . The detailed list of target woredas of AGP II by region is indicated in the table below (see list of woredas in the Annex I).
Table : Distribution of Target Woredas across Regional States
Sr no
|
Name of region
|
Number of woredas
|
Existing
|
New woredas
|
Total no. of Woredas
|
1
|
Oromiya
|
39
|
23
|
62
|
2
|
Amhara
|
26
|
15
|
41
|
3
|
SNNPR
|
22
|
13
|
35
|
4
|
Tigray
|
9
|
4
|
13
|
5
|
Benishangul-Gumuz
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
6
|
Gambella
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
7
|
Harari
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
|
Dire Dawa Admin. Council
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
8
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
96
|
61
|
157
| 1.2.3 Target Beneficiaries
The primary target of the program is small holder farmers, who live in areas of Ethiopia with the highest potential for agricultural growth. Small holder farmers are defined by the Central Statistics Agency as farmers living in a village, registered as a resident in kebele administration, conducting agricultural production activities (crop production, livestock husbandry and agro-forestry) and owning land of variable size; the average holding sizes of land per household is around 1 ha.
The target number of direct beneficiaries will be farmers benefiting from trainings and demonstrations leading to adoption of new technologies, farmers in Common Interest Groups (CIGs), farmers benefiting from small scale irrigation and HHI including those in Irrigation Water User Associations (IWUAs), farmers in Farmer Research Extension Groups, farmers being linked to the market by the Program, farmers using animal health services and farmer members of cooperatives supported by the Program and are estimated to be 1.6 million. In addition, the Program will reach a significant number of indirect beneficiaries, including household members and farmers benefitting from improved public agricultural services overall and access to some markets. The Program will also specifically target women farmers with tailor made innovations, activities and technical assistance. The target proportion of female direct beneficiaries (both female head of household and married female) will be 40 percent.
Table : Estimated Total number of HH in AGP II disaggregated by Sex
Region
|
Total no of AGP woredas
|
Total no of Kebeles
|
Total no of Household
|
Total Target Population
|
Male
|
Female
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
Total
|
Oromiya
|
62
|
1,640
|
1,130,965
|
158,311
|
1,289,276
|
4,261,632
|
4243,026
|
8,504,658
|
Amhara
|
41
|
1,066
|
904,685
|
247,624
|
1,152,309
|
3,238,427
|
3202,047
|
6,440,474
|
SNNPR
|
35
|
1,024
|
366,474
|
378,932
|
745,406
|
1,606,370
|
1636,634
|
3,243,004
|
Tigray
|
13
|
205
|
372,675
|
101,035
|
473,710
|
737,225
|
85,438
|
1,593,663
|
Benishangul Gumuz
|
2
|
53
|
18,956
|
2,539
|
21,495
|
62,533
|
63,247
|
125,780
|
Gambella
|
2
|
35
|
5,157
|
2,906
|
8,063
|
25,207
|
14,793
|
40,000
|
Harari
|
1
|
17
|
20,357
|
6,782
|
27,139
|
53,799
|
52,091
|
105,890
|
Dire Dawa City Administration
|
1
|
12
|
8,371
|
1,355
|
9,726
|
23,655
|
23,805
|
47,460
|
Total
|
157
|
4052
|
2,827,640
|
899,484
|
3,727,144
|
10,008,848
|
9,321,081
|
20,100,929
|
1.2.4 Program Design Approach
To achieve its development objective, AGP- II is designed in a comprehensive approach, in such a way that the planning and implementation would be in a decentralized manner with a focus on ensuring women benefit equally as men from the components, following a demand-driven and incentive-(performance) based approach along the value chains. The program would focus on a targeted group of commodities with strong domestic/export market potential and demand-led service and infrastructure interventions that respond both, to community priorities and market signals. The program design builds on the lessons from AGP I. There are several key principles embedded in the design.
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Comprehensiveand responding to strategic goals:AGP is a broad-based program that attempts to improve a large range of activities (input, production, processing, and marketing) along selected agricultural value chains in order to improve productivity of resources, value addition, marketing and infrastructure for male and female farmers in selected target areas. Thus, it will help participating small scale farmers to access improved technology, infrastructure, finance and input-output markets. The basic strategy of the program is also to improve the business environment for agriculture by gradually shifting from subsistence to market oriented commercial agriculture. In general the program would be the government’s largest investment operation supporting the agricultural growth agenda, and would therefore respond to strategic goals at national, regional and woreda level.
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Demand driven and decentralized (participatory): Bottom-up planning process would give greater power to kebele and woreda-level to initiate and determine integrated plans for AGP. Individual activities would be largely chosen by farmers and their communities and organizations as well as other private sector beneficiaries at a grassroots level. Thus, local female and male farmers and youth are the owner of the program, and will actively participate in problem identification, planning, implementing and monitoring the activities. The program encourages women, women headed household and youth to participate in the program as they easily fall within the target group of small scale farmers.
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Focused on selected areas:Given the limited resources, AGP II will operate in selected areas, yet expanded from 96 Woredas in Phase I to 157 woredas in the country (about 64% increases). The target areas are characterized as relatively high potential ago-ecological clusters (see also 1.2 above).
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Value chain: Value chain approach6 will be used for the implementation of the program. A typical supply chain will include producers, assemblers/traders, processors, distributors, retailers, exporters, financers and finally consumers. This includes the selection of specific value chains (which are considered strategically important for the country to increase export earnings / import substitution). A focus on specific value chains is made to ensure significant value addition along the supply chain. The Program will strive to boost the incomes of target beneficiaries engaged in all activities and services that are undertaken along all lines from the primary production to the final consumption of a commodity. The program will also take note of the roles of women, men and youth along the lines of value chain to ensure that all rounded support is provided. The technologies, the improved systems and other opportunities and the selection of the commodities will consider the potential benefit to women and youth.The AGP, through several of its intervention activities, will also strengthen rural-urban linkages.
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Incorporating strategic cross cutting goals: the program would both mainstream and include targeted interventions to address the following cross cutting issues: i) Nutrition: the program would explicitly support the National Nutrition Program to improve the diversity and nutritional content of smallholder production and processing; ii) increased participation of women and youth, to support the narrowing of the gender productivity gap; and iii) Climate Smart Agriculture, including support to the implementation of the Government’s Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy;
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Sustainability: including close attention to creating capacity for investments under the program to be maintained. In this regard, the program would adopt a systematic and consistent approach to capacity building through the following stages: a) consensus building with key stakeholders on the capacity gaps to be addressed and how they should be addressed; b) capacity strengthening activities to address the gaps identified during the consensus building stage; c) application and follow up where support is provided to enable new capacities to be applied in the work place; and d) institutionalization where new capacities are internalized, mainstreamed or scaled up.
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Complementarities and Linkages: Within the program, coordination between components and activities is essential for the program objectives to be realized, including among the research, extension and market development activities. In addition, there are other programs and initiatives within the agriculture sector which are highly complementary to the proposed program.
In addition, AGP will complement the existing government programs, to promote agricultural growth in the selected areas. The strategic thrust of the program is to support access to productivity-enhancing technologies and agricultural commercialization through scaling up of best practices in agricultural growth, improve market access, rural infrastructure and building capacity in areas of need.
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