Project profile — Improving Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers

• Ethiopia (100.00%)

• Agricultural policy and administrative management:
Agricultural policy and administrative management (31110) (20.00%)
Agricultural extension (31166) (20.00%)
Agricultural education/training (31181) (20.00%)
Agricultural research (31182) (20.00%)
Agricultural co-operatives (31194) (20.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)

The project aims to increase agricultural productivity and improved livelihoods for people in rural areas by building capacity for market-oriented agricultural production. The project assists farmers, community organizations, and public institutions to develop innovative methods to produce high value crops, such as honey, beans, and teff, and livestock such as sheep and goats. The project focuses on building connections between smallholder farmers in order to increase their negotiating power, access to processing facilities, and access to market information, thereby increasing their potential to earn a higher income. The project also works to improve the quality of farm products, their storage, and processing in order to ensure a higher price at market. Linking farmer groups and small-scale local traders with larger wholesale, processing, and export marketing groups are also part of the strategy. The project also works with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Agricultural Technical and Vocational Training Centers to develop training opportunities for market-oriented farming.

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The following are some highlights of cumulative results achieved over the life of the project. A total of 32,500 (including 6,825 women) farmers and other value chain actors participated directly in Value Chain capacity development activities thereby allowing them to improve productivity and quality of agricultural commodities. Results include the gross annual production value of banana increasing from zero to an estimated Ethiopian to almost $140,000 per year in Metema pilot learning district. Annual upland rice production in Fogera pilot learning district grew from 0 hectares (ha) to 5,000 ha with an estimated gross production value of over $5.5 million. In Ada’a pilot district, the introduction of high yielding export chickpea varieties was adopted by the majority of farmers and now represents 80% of production. Yield per hectare has also doubled. Annual production of certified onion seeds in Fogera by 150 farmers when from 0 metric tons to 20.5 metric tons and is valued at almost $450,000. Cereal production in other pilot learning districts, especially teff, increased 2.5 times as a result of the introduction of a new variety of seeds and seed multiplication system. For irrigated vegetables, area/production in all 10 pilot districts has increased between 60% to 200%. Finally, IPMS and its partners documented project findings in 31 working papers, 77 articles, 19 commodity value chain case studies, 9 videos and 7 project brochures. Documents are published on the IPMS website for use in and outside Ethiopia, which on average has 4,500 unique visitors each month. Also, over 70 thousand hard copy publications and 2,000 DVDs were distributed. The project sponsored and/or supervised over 130 M.Sc. thesis research studies on themes/topics, of which 100 are posted on the project website in English.

• Proactive disclosure