Federal democratic republic of ethiopia ministry of agriculture
Sub-Component 1,2 : Scaling up of Best Practices
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- 1.1.6Identification and Compilation of Best Practices
- 1.1.7Implementation of Best Practices
- COMPONENT 2 : AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
Sub-Component 1,2 : Scaling up of Best PracticesThe fastest way to increase production is to identify and scale up best practices in wider areas. Thus, the objective of this sub component is to enhance and intensify agricultural production through wider use of proven technologies and practices. The current trend of agriculture in Ethiopia indicates that crop and livestock production and productivity of some progressive farmers is high compared to the agricultural production of the wide community which is characterized by low production and productivity. The main difference is access to improved inputs and techniques and gap in knowledge and skill. In such case, the program will focus in narrowing the gap between average farm yields and those achieved at experimental farms or by progressive farmers. In view of this, the program will support assessment and promotion of improved and proven technologies that will enhance agricultural productivity and contribute to value addition. The implementation of this sub component will pay special attention to making female farmers benefit equally as men farmers. The scaling up process shall also consider proven climate smart agriculture technologies and practices for intensification and wider promotion. Women farmers will be encouraged to participate on technology identification, preparation and implementation. Major activities under this sub-component are discussed below. 1.1.6Identification and Compilation of Best PracticesIn consultation with key stakeholders, the extension service will first identify improved technologies and management practices in a range of thematic areas related to production, post-harvest handling, value addition and marketing. EIAR and RARIs are the major source of technologies particularly for crop and livestock productivity enhancement. Netherlands supported CASCAPE program will provide support through training and provision of evidence based validation for the implementation. CASCAPE validates and document innovations for scaling up in collaboration with, MoA, Universities, EIAR and RARIs. Best practice identification shall consider also available technologies from national sources including universities, civil society organizations and private sectors. Farmers and community as a whole are also important sources of best practices. Best practice assessment shall look into activities implemented in AGP I and other similar programs and that have shown successful results. The lesson from AGP I and other successful programs will then be incorporated. The identification process will consider the environment in which the pilot program has been operating to identify contextual factors that may have been essential to the success of the practice. It helps also to identify features that need to be re arranged for the practice to be successfully scaled up. Men and female farmers will be given equal opportunity to participate in the scaling up activities. Gender, climate smart and nutrition best practices will be identified and assembled. Identified technologies will then be screened and implementation guideline prepared for each specific best practices. 1.1.7Implementation of Best PracticesTo support the implementation of best practices planning, it is important to build the capacity of service providers and organize and strengthen multi stakeholders’ platform. For effective and efficient extension service delivery, the scaling up program will link to value chain commodities in component IV, and productivity enhancement irrigation activities in component III. This activity will be coordinated by the Extension Directorate and jointly implemented by responsible IAs.
Component overview The agriculture sector contributes greatly to the national gross domestic product (GDP), employment and foreign export earnings of Ethiopia. Production and productivity of the sector is, however, low which is attributed, among other factors, to inadequate agricultural (crop, livestock, soil and water management and farm implements) technologies, degradation of the natural resource base, climate change induced risks, population pressure and limited capacity of human and physical resources. The National Agricultural Research System (NARS) has been involved in adapting, generating and demonstrating agricultural technologies that enhance food security, supply inputs to agro-industries and generate foreign currency. The technologies have contributed to the growth of the sector and improved livelihood of the farming community. In this regard, the use of improved crop production technologies (varieties, agronomic practices and integrated pest management systems) is very crucial. Thus, adapting and generating these technologies for enhancing productivity of the crop subsector is imperative. In the same way, the demand for livestock products is rapidly increasing, attributed to rapid population growth and rising per capita income. A recently conducted livestock sector analysis (MOA, 2014) showed that if no investment is made in technical innovations (breed, feed, health and other husbandry practices) aiming at improvement of the productivity of the sector, there will be a deficit of 1,958 million liters of milk (23%) and 1,213 thousand tons of meat (42%) in 2028. Inadequacy of feed resources in terms of quality and quantity is a critical barrier to improved livestock productivity. In this regard, available evidence indicates that there is a feed gap of 45% at national level. Consequently, promoting production systems based on improved livestock technologies (breeds, feeds, animal husbandry practices etc.) is essential to reverse these situations. Soil and water management challenges in Ethiopia include soil degradation (acidity, salinity and loss of nutrients) and workability problems (mainly for heavy soils), inefficient utilization of water resources and poor drainage. Furthermore, increasing climate variability and change is also becoming an important factor. These constraints induce reduction in agricultural productivity and hence should be alleviated through effective use of potential technological interventions including soil, water, crop and landscape management technologies that increase resource and agricultural productivity on a sustainable basis. Possible soil and water management technological interventions include: strengthening soil-test based fertilizer recommendations, promoting integrated and sustainable soil fertility management systems and, verification and scaling up of new blend fertilizer formulations, increasing the water use efficiency of irrigated crops and rehabilitation of degraded lands through the use of multipurpose tree species. Cognizant of the importance of agricultural technologies for improving productivity, in the second phase of the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP-II), attention is given to the need for supporting applied agricultural research activities and considered it as one of the components of the program with the objective of adapting, generating and promoting technologies that enhance productivity and commercialization of the sector. Agricultural technology adaptation, generation and pre-extension demonstration activities are envisaged to be implemented by taking into consideration principles of crosscutting issues such as nutrition, gender and climate smart agricultural (CSA). The agricultural research component of AGP-II program is composed of the following sub-components:
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