Ethiopia and FAO
Partnering to achieve sustainable agricultural growth and food security
Ethiopia has been an FAO member since 1948, and in 1981 FAO opened an office, which today serves as the Subregional Office for Eastern Africa and FAO Representation to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission as well as FAO representation. An active partnership has resulted in 100 FAO projects over the past decade alone, ranging from support to policymaking, natural resource management and land administration to livestock, crop and fruit production and agribusiness development. Development interventions to increase agricultural productivity and competitiveness are coupled with disaster response and rehabilitation support.
COntACts
Amadou Allahoury Diallo FAO Representative in Ethiopia FAO Representation
Addis Ababa
Tel.:+251-11-647 8888 E-mail: [email protected]
Major FAO field presence
In addition to FAO-Ethiopia, the Addis Ababa office hosts FAO’s Subregional Office for Eastern Africa (SFE), supporting eight countries, the FAO Representation to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission.
The office plays an important liaison role with several development partners based in Ethiopia and the subregion.
An active partner in Africa
Ending hunger
Ethiopia is one of four pilot countries selected to implement the Renewed Partnership to End Hunger in Africa by 2025.
Launched in July 2014 following a high-level meeting convened by the African Union in collaboration with FAO and the Lula Institute, the partnership aims to promote actions to eradicate hunger and malnutrition under the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).
With support from FAO, the Government of Ethiopia has already taken the first step by reviewing its policies, programmes and investment plans for food security, nutrition and social protection so as to identify gaps and areas in which to strengthen action.
Africa Solidarity Trust Fund
Ethiopia was one of the first six countries to benefit from the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund in 2014. The country received US$2 million for enhancing livelihoods and reducing poverty through economic diversification and decent work opportunities for rural communities.
Led and funded by African countries, the Trust Fund supports a wide range of projects designed to improve agriculture, food and nutrition security and rural development across the continent.
Matching FAO’s expertise to Ethiopia’s development priorities
FAO assistance in Ethiopia is shaped by the 2012-2015 FAO Country Programming Framework (CPF), which centres on three priority areas:
Agricultural productivity and competitiveness, including crop as well as livestock productivity
Sustainable natural resource development and management, including integrated watershed management and smallholders’ adaptation to climate change
Improved food and nutrition security, including strengthening the capacities of government and communities to ensure resilience against disasters and other shocks; and the integration of agricultural production and food-based nutrition
In supporting these three priorities, FAO aims to boost the country’s technical and institutional capacity in the areas of agricultural policy and regulatory frameworks, and agricultural information and knowledge management. Gender considerations and the role and needs of young population groups receive a constant focus across interventions.
Jointly developed with the Government and other partners, the CPF is aligned with the UN Development Assistance Framework for Ethiopia and supports national development objectives, as outlined in the country’s five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (2010/11-2014/15) and Agriculture Sector Policy and Investment Framework 2010-2015.
Global knowledge exchange
The sharing of knowledge and expertise under FAO’s South-South Cooperation (SSC) programme has produced exemplary results since its introduction in Ethiopia. Since May 2013, 29 Chinese experts and technicians have been fielded to different parts of the country, where they have assisted farmers in the use of different farming tools and new technologies. Field trials
have been carried out for a variety of crops and vegetables, and specific technologies (e.g.
transplanting, double-ridging, double seeds, and reasonable density and watering) have been applied with farmers in regions of Amhara, Oromiya,
Tigray and SNNPR. The Ministry of Agriculture has acknowledged that the technical exchange is improving agricultural productivity and production through the successful transfer of skills and practices.
The Chinese agriculturists are specialized in small-scale irrigation, agricultural extension, crop production and protection, horticulture development, livestock production, post-harvest and processing technologies and farm mechanization.
The overall objective of this SSC initiative is to provide technical assistance as a means of enhancing agricultural production and productivity through the improvement of small-scale irrigation schemes, post-harvest technologies and household agro-processing technologies. It also aims to increase household income and food security, using farmers training centres as strategic entry points for effective and efficient agricultural extension services.
“Food security and adequate nutrition for all is where sustainable development starts.”
José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General
©FAO/Giulio Napolitano©FAO/Giulio Napolitano
Boosting productivity – and resilience
Ethiopia is prone to droughts and floods, which have a particularly adverse impact on smallholder farming communities and herders. This vulnerability is aggravated by a predominance of low-input, rain-fed production systems, depleted soils and a lack of improved seed for farmers. The result is low productivity, particulalarly in dry, food-deficit areas.
FAO has been contributing to the improvement of crop production and productivity by addressing some of these challenges with the Government at the policy and advocacy level, including the development of appropriate legal frameworks. At the practical level, the Organization has been directly assisting smallholders to engage in improved seed production, while supporting government schemes aimed at increasing the availability of seed stocks and supporting high-value crop production. Small-scale irrigation schemes have been rehabilitated or newly built and FAO has worked closely with the Government to establish a water audit and monitoring system.
Conservation agriculture
In the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), between 2012 and 2013 FAO implemented a project aimed at coordinating and advocating for conservation agriculture. The objective was to improve soil moisture retention and health through sensitization and coordination of minimum tillage and other associated conservation agriculture (CA) practices.
More than 200 government staff and farmers benefited from the intervention, which involved a national workshop as well as a study tour to observe CA practices in
Zambia. This also provided an opportunity to exchange information and experiences with a view to developing and implementing a CA programme.
A series of training sessions were organized for extension staff, who then passed their knowledge on through practical demonstrations to selected farmers. A group of 80 farmers were then selected to establish their own on-farm CA demonstration sites (40 in total).
Project activities were completed with the provision of seeds, fertilizer and hand tools to allow quality and timely farming practices.
An important impact of the project was effective information sharing to create a common understanding of CA and to promote awareness of its value among policymakers. Capacity building was achieved among the region’s extension and development agents as well as farmers, and demonstration sites revealed superior crop performance compared with traditionally farmed areas.
Participating farmers expressed their interest and intentions to expand CA practices by sharing the new practices with neighbouring farmers.
