The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, (AGRA), supports Ethiopia in developing strategies to attract investment in wheat, rice, edible oilseeds, and animal feed value chain.
AGRA has provided three documents that Ethiopian officials requested from AGRA. They support Ethiopia in priority investment and the implementation of three major programs. These programs aim to increase local production, marketing, consumption, and use of four key agricultural items: wheat, rice, oil seeds, and animal feed. The Ethiopian Government led the consultative process that resulted in the creation of the flagship programs. It also involved civil society, private sector, and development partners.
The flagship documents have been designed in accordance with the governments’ policies to reduce the import of commodities by enhancing local production, which is one of the focus areas of the Government of Ethiopia.
The three flagship documents titled – the National Wheat Flagship program (NWFP), the National Rice Flagship Program (NRFP), and the Oil Seeds and Animal Feed Production Flagship Program (OSAP) will support investment and implementation of the country’s vision leading towards food sovereignty and security.
AGRA also provided three additional knowledge products during the event. Two books from a market-led integrated value chain development program implemented in 30 woredas focusing on maize, wheat, teff and haricot bean value chains, and a booklet outlining AGRA’s experience on targeted secondment of Technical Experts to the Ministry of Agriculture. These knowledge products will help to design future investments and interventions within the sector.
“The knowledge documents we are handing over today are instrumental to Ethiopia’s agricultural development and were requested by the Ministry of Agriculture. AGRA as a demand-driven institution could not be an initiator, rather a supporter” said H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn (the former Prime Minister of Ethiopia) is the current Chair of AGRA Board.
He continued…. “The flagship documents are both implementation and resource mobilization tools. AGRA will continue providing the support needed for quick implementation through our existing consortia, which are equipped to enhance integrated delivery of critical services to farmers through the effective coordination of private investments,”
According to H.E Oumer Hussein, the Minister of Agriculture in Ethiopia, ‘with increasing urbanization there has been an increase in domestic demand for imported rice in the country’. This is why the government is paying special attention to rice.
“The production of these knowledge products, emerging from national and international experiences would enhance our rice development program, and help achieving our aspired goal of reducing imported rice and improving food security” Honorable Oumer said. Ethiopia now produces just 12% of its annual rice requirements, compared with 56% in 2011.
From the perspective of wheat, the NWFP addresses the widening gap in production and consumption. The country’s wheat consumption has increased by 6% per year. In the last decade, imports have increased in Ethiopia. Ethiopia imported $320 million worth of wheat in 2020.
Additionally, the OSAP was created to increase domestic edible oil production from the current 2% up to at least 50% by 2028. In 2020, the country spent approximately US$740million to import more than 1.2 billion tonnes of edible oils. This increased pressure on the already tight forex market. The local production of animal feed was also increased by this flagship, which used the byproducts of edible oil production.
AGRAThe government can also use the flagship coordination plan and implementation modeality plan to provide technical support in policy development, budget planning, and strategic direction.
Source: newbusinessethiopia
