Agriculture in Ethiopia

- Agriculture is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was

the key development in the rise of human civilization, whereby farming of
domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in
cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After
gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, farmers began to
plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep, and cattle were
domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in
at least 11 regions of the world.
- Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth
century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people
still depended on subsistence agriculture.
- The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers,
fuels and raw materials (such as rubber). Food classes include cereals
(grains), vegetables, fruits, oils, meat, milk, fungi and eggs. Over one-third of
the world’s workers are employed in agriculture, second only to the service
sector, although in recent decades, the global trend of a decreasing number
of agricultural workers continues, especially in developing countries where
smallholding is being overtaken by industrial agriculture and mechanization

Agriculture in Ethiopia

- Ethiopia has great agricultural potential because of its vast areas of fertile
land, diverse climate, generally adequate rainfall, and large labor pool.
Agriculture in Ethiopia is the foundation of the country’s economy,
accounting for almost half of gross domestic product (GDP), 83.9% of
exports, and 80% of total employment. Ethiopia’s livestock population is
believed to be the largest in Africa.

- Agriculture is the country's most promising resource. A potential exists for

self-sufficiency in grains and for export development in livestock, grains,
vegetables, and fruits. As many as 4.6 million people need food assistance

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 annually. Many other economic activities depend on agriculture, including
marketing, processing, and export of agricultural products.
Contributions, potentials and characteristics of agriculture in
Ethiopia

- Agriculture accounted for 50% of GDP, 83.9% of exports, and 80% of the
labor force in 2006 and 2007, compared to 44.9%, 76.9% and 80% in
2002/2003, and agriculture remains the Ethiopian economy’s most important
sector
- Agricultural products account for more than 90 percent of the foreign
exchange earnings of the country.
- More than 80 percent of the Ethiopian population derives its livelihood
directly from agriculture.
- Agriculture provides raw materials for the processing industries.
- Agriculture contributes 27.5 billion dollars to the GDP, it is the major source
of raw material and capital for investment and market. Furthermore, the
Ministry plans to increase wheat productivity from 2.7million ton in 2019 to 4
million ton/ha by 2023 and reduce wheat import from 1.7 million ton in 2019
to zero by 2023. The MOA envisages achieving this by acid soil management,
intensification, expanded use of irrigation, mechanization, and private sector
partnership.
The Agricultural Resource Base/potentials of Ethiopia
- Ethiopia has a variety of fruits, leafy vegetables, roots and tubers adaptable
to specific locations and altitudes. The major producers of these crops are
small scale farmers, production being mainly rain fed and few under
irrigation. Shallot, garlic, potatoes and chilies are mainly produced under rain
fed conditions
- Ethiopia has got an immense potential to develop intensive horticulture on
small scale as well as on commercial scale. some of the favorable factors that
contribute to an overall investment are:

 Proximity to lucrative markets,

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  Agro-climatic suitability and rich water resources for diversified
irrigated agriculture,

 Growth/rise of demand for horticultural crops, particularly in urban

areas,

 Diversified agro-climatic conditions that facilitate the diversification of

the crops,

 The high productivity of horticultural crops as compared to cereals,

 Export possibilities of these crops are very encouraging and

 If fully exploited, these crops are highly remunerative and would be

undoubtedly help to improve the standard of living of small scale
resources poor farmers.
Land Use
- Ethiopia’s total land area of 1,221,480 square kilometers, the government
estimated in the late 1980s that 15 percent was under cultivation and 51
percent was pasture. It was also estimated that over 60 percent of the
cultivated area was cropland. Forestland, most of it in the southwestern part
of the country, accounted for 4 percent of the total land area, according to
the government. These figures varied from those provided by the World
Bank, which estimated that cropland, pasture, and forestland accounted for
13%, 41%, and 25%, respectively, of the total land area in
1987.Inaccessibility, water shortages, and infestations of disease-causing
insects, mainly mosquitoes, prevented the use of large parcels of potentially
productive land. In Ethiopia’s lowlands, for example, the presence of malaria
kept farmers from settling in many areas.

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 - Most agricultural producers are subsistence farmers with small holdings,
often broken into several plots. Most of these farmers lived in the Ethiopian
Highlands, mainly at elevations of 1,500 to 3,000 meters. There are two
predominant soil types in the highlands. The first, found in areas with
relatively good drainage, consists of red-to-reddish-brown clayey loams that
hold moisture and are well endowed with needed minerals, with the
exception of phosphorus. These types of soils are found in much of the
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region (SNNPR). The second
type consists of brownish-to-gray and black soils with a high clay content.
These soils are found in both the northern and the southern highlands in
areas with poor drainage. They are sticky when wet, hard when dry, and
difficult to work. But with proper drainage and conditioning, these soils have
excellent agricultural potential, in 2008 the average Ethiopian farmer holds
1.2 hectares of land, with 55.13% of them holding less than 1.0 hectare.
- The population in the lowland peripheries (below 1,500 meters) is nomadic,
engaged mainly in livestock raising. Sandy desert soils cover much of the arid
lowlands in the northeast and in the Ogaden of southeastern Ethiopia.
Because of low rainfall, these soils have limited agricultural potential, except
in some areas where rainfall is sufficient for the growth of natural forage at
certain times of the year

Cropping seasons in Ethiopia; the two main crop seasons in Ethiopia are
the Belg and Meher seasons which receive rainfall from February to June and
from June to October, respectively. Belg crop season is officially defined as
any crop harvested between March and August, while the Meher crop
season is defined as any crop harvested between September and February.
The Meher crop season is the main season and produces 90-95 percent of
the nation’s total cereals output, and the Belg harvest provides the
remaining 5-10 percent of cereal output.

Cropping Pattern in Ethiopia; the highlands do not only produce a variety

of crops due to their improved environmental conditions as well as due to the
variety of agro ecological zones caused by altitudinal variations, but they also
practice an elaborate system of land preparation and crop rotation.

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 - Available data on crop production show that land reform and the various
government rural programs had a minimal impact on increasing the food
supply, as production levels displayed considerable fluctuations and low
growth rates at best
 Ethiopia produced in 2018:

- 7.3 million tons of maize (17th largest producer in the world)

- 4.9 million tons of sorghum (4th largest producer in the world)
- 4.2 million tons of wheat
- 2.1 million tons of barley (17th largest producer in the world)
- 1.8 million tons of sweet potato (5th largest producer in the world)
- 1.4 million tons of sugar cane
- 1.3 million tons of yam (5th largest producer in the world)
- 988 thousand tons of broad bean
- 743 thousand tons of potato
- 599 thousand tons of vegetable
- 374 thousand tons of pea (20th largest producer in the world)
- 322 thousand tons of onion
- 301 thousand tons of sesame seed (7th largest producer in the world)
- 294 thousand tons of bell pepper
- 172 thousand tons of lentil (11th largest producer in the world)
- 144 thousand tons of rice

Animal husbandry; Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa, and
this subsector accounts for 40% of gross agricultural output. In normal years,
animal husbandry provides a living for 75% of the population. The number of
cattle (zebu type) was estimated at 35.4 million in 2001; about three-fifths of
them primarily work animals.

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 - The country lacks facilities for fattening cattle brought in to slaughter, an
adequate veterinary service, and breeding herds. Meat production was
estimated at 548,000 tons in 2001. Milk production from cows was an
estimated 1,450,000 tons in 2001; from sheep, 28,600 tons; and from goats,
17,100 tons. The number of sheep and goats was estimated at 11.4 million
and 9.6 million, respectively, but periodic drought may have made the actual
number much lower. The number of horses was estimated at 1,254,000,
mules at 630,000, donkeys at 3,414,000, and camels at 326,000. These were
primarily pack animals. Hides and skins constitute the country’s second-
largest export item and generally command high prices on the world market.
In 1999, production of cattle hides was 56,000 tons; sheepskins, 14,000 tons;
and goatskins, 13,000 tons. In 2001, Ethiopia produced 28,000 tons of honey,
more than any other nation in Africa.
Characteristics of Ethiopian Agriculture
Agriculture in Ethiopia also possess some basic and general characteristics. These
basic attributes are:
 Practiced at subsistence level
 Used fragmented agricultural lands
 The soil used be the sector degraded
 Dependence on rain-fed agriculture
 Traditional cropping system
 Lack of capital
Agriculture Systems in Ethiopia
- We would simply define agricultural systems to as any system that produces
livestock and crops (food, feed, fiber, and/or energy) including the social,
political and economic components of that system. Agricultural system is a
practice and a way of life carried by rural people who are confined to
relatively similar agro-physical resource basis and share more related socio-
cultural, economic and livelihood structures and patterns.
- Based on the dominant corps cultivated or animals reared and the main
implements used in cultivation, the following major farming systems are
identified:

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1. Highland mixed farming system; is the integration of crop and livestock
production.

2. Lowland mixed farming system; Drought tolerant varieties of sorghum,

maize, wheat, teff, oil corps and lowland pulses are grown. The region is
characterized by hot and dry conditions (450-800mm of rainfall) and
shallow soils with poor water retention.
3. Pastoral system; This type of agriculture is practiced in the arid and
semiarid lowlands of Ethiopia where average annual rainfall is less than
500mm by nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples of Afar, Somali and Borena
zone of Oromia and lowlands of the Southern Region of southern Omo and
Lake Turkana area.
4. Shifting cultivation; In Ethiopia shifting cultivation is practiced by some
ethnic groups living in western and south western fringes of the Ethiopian
highlands and lowlands or Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella and Southern
Regions where population density is low and livestock rearing is limited in
some areas due to tsetse fly infestation (trypanosomiasis). This is the cut-
and- burn cultivation system whereby a given plot of land is cultivated after
clearing until its natural fertility is exhausted to a level it cannot support
plant life any longer and then abandoned for another clearing
5. Commercial agriculture; Commercial agriculture is a modern farming
practice involving the production of crops or animal products for market by
using some degree of mechanization and hired laborers.

Major problems of Ethiopian agriculture

 Key problems to agricultural productivity in Ethiopia include low
availability of improved or hybrid seed, lack of seed multiplication
capacity, low profitability and efficiency of fertilizer use due to the lack of
complimentary improved practices and seed, and lack of irrigation and
water constraints.
 These are some of the major problems in Ethiopia agriculture;

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 Shortage and landlessness of arable farm land in the highlands;
Arable land refers to the potential of land where its soil and climatic
conditions are suitable for growing crops and rearing animals. It is
settled with low population density and not protected by any land
right regimen. Arable land is the most basic resource for farmers’ life
which the majority of the energetic Ethiopians lacked or too small to
use because it is divided into a number of small-sized parcels,
degraded, fragmented and infertile.

 Land fragmentation; the already small size farmland of a family is

further fragmented into very small pieces of land when the children
inherited since it divided among themselves. This is an impediment
to increasing yield and rather leads to poverty and food insecurity.
Because many family members will be becoming jobless since the
land is not enough to engage them as full-time farmers.

 Climate change; Ethiopia is vulnerable to climate change. It posed a

huge challenge to Ethiopians. Ethiopia has lost a cumulative level of
over 13% of its current agricultural output between 1991 and 2008
followed by climate change. For instance, rainfall is one of the most
noticed climate variables in the country. It varies from season to
season, and year to year across agro-ecological regions [(Dega (high
land), Woina Dega (midland), and kola (lowland)] of the country. The
variation of climate change in Ethiopia is not limited to rainfall but
includes temperatures, relative humidity, wind, and others. The
lowlands are vulnerable to increased temperatures and prolonged
droughts, while the highlands suffered from more intense and
irregular rainfall

 Land degradation and deforestation; More than 85% of the Ethiopian

land is degraded to various degrees. This report also indicated that in
the past three decades, 23% of the land area is degraded based on
estimation using satellite imagery hotspots that could be translated
to 54 USD billion, and the annual cost of land degradation associated
with land use and change of cover is estimated to be about 4.3 USD
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 billion. It is also estimated that over 1.5 billion tons of soil per year
are lost by erosion and flooding which could have added about 1.5
million tons of grains to the Ethiopian products Generally, land
degradation is a great threat to future production in Ethiopia. It
caused severe loss of fertile soil and disturbs the sustainability of
land resources due to the low supply of organic matter

 Unevenly distributed constructions and urbanizations; the fertile

arable land in rural, sub-town, town, sub-cities, and cities of Ethiopia
is grabbed by different government authorities and individuals for
construction of the house, school, road, etc. These are reducing the
farmland and increasing displacement of the farming community.
Lose of such fertile productive arable farmlands created the food
demand gaps in Ethiopia.

 Pests; crop and animal diseases such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, and
nematodes; insect pests, rodents, and birds are common problems in
Ethiopia.