Africa-Press – Ethiopia. The effort being made by the government of Ethiopia to achieve higher production by producing crops in multiple season is remarkable, Senior Researcher at Ethiopian Economics Association Arega Shumatie said.
In an exclusive interview , Arega Shumatie said agricultureis the mainstay of the overall economy.
Over the past few years, the agriculturalproduction has showed growth, even in the desert areas due to application oftechnologies such as irrigation, the researcher said.
The efforts expended by the government inusing technologies and mechanization should be intensified, he said, addingthat the government should also identify the types of the crops that arecultivated.
“Over the past three years, the governmenthas tried to have an active intervention on the agriculture, trying to havemultiple time production within the fiscal years. For instance, the governmenthad given due attention to irrigation and mechanizing production system, havinga focus on few of the crops specially wheat,” he said.
The researcher explained that thispractice should be expanded to other crops and different parts of the country.
Despite the country’s big agriculturalpotential for commercial and export products, the level of production is far belowfrom what is expected, the researcher said.
Ethiopia’s agriculture is dominantlypracticed by small holder farmers, who frequently use traditional productionmethods and largely dependent on nature, Arega said.
Therefore, the government should providesupport to farmers to enhance productivity and free from total naturedependence.
“The country has potential fordiversifying products because of the agro enology of the country. If there isenhanced effort by the government, the country can produce huge amount ofsurplus products that may even feed some parts of Africa,” he said.
The efforts being made by the governmentto mechanize and modernize agriculture through assisting small holder farmersutilize mechanized farming has significant contribution for increasing theoverall production.
According to him, the government shouldtry to identify the type of technology that could be introduced for wheat andbarley producing areas, commercial crop producing areas and irrigationpotential areas.
He added that Ethiopia needs to plan its own chemical fertilizer and other essential agricultural inputs in order to avoid dependency on other countries.
Ethiopia can learn experience from theAsian Tigers, especially the Chinese and Korean experience, registering highproductivity from small holders farmers in fragmented and small plot of land,the senior researcher pointed out.
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