Project profile — Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders

• Ethiopia (100.00%)

• Agricultural development:
Agricultural development (31120) (40.00%)
Agricultural extension (31166) (20.00%)
Agricultural education/training (31181) (20.00%)
Agricultural co-operatives (31194) (20.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)

The project aims to increase incomes and improve food security for 675,000 smallholder farmers and their families in four regions in north and southwestern Ethiopia: Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, and the Southern Nations and Nationalities and Peoples Region. The project helps smallholder farmers to increase their incomes by supporting the production and sale of high-value livestock and agricultural crops. It is designed to provide technical assistance, training, and mentoring to enable government specialists to better support agricultural producers with improved production and marketing techniques. The project is also linking farmers with small and medium-sized businesses to provide improved services and inputs such as seeds.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: targeted male and female value chain actors engage in profitable and sustainable agricultural commodity value chains; and service providers support demand-driven, competitive, and sustainable value chains.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2018) include: (1) 9,683 households (of which 21.8% are led by women) were trained in various livestock commodity production interventions and 7,674 farm households (of which 16.5% are led by women) were trained in irrigated crops; (2) 2,356 businesses/organizations, including 589 new businesses, have been supported over the life of the project with either input supplies or in marketing and processing; (3) 18,237 famers (31% women) attended various knowledge sharing events; (4) 41 Agricultural Knowledge Centers (AKCs) were established and equipped with computers with access to the Internet; (5) the level of farmer satisfaction in extension services (information and knowledge, capacity building/training and linkages supports) showed that about 80% of respondents reported to have at least high level of satisfaction; and (6) the number of views for the LIVES website since project inception has reached 153, 821. These results have contributed to greater engagement of value chain actors in profitable and sustainable agricultural commodity value chains, as well as greater engagement of service providers in supporting demand-driven, competitive, and sustainable value chains.

• Proactive disclosure