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| Farm under irrigation in Ethiopia |
The CAD 19.26 million will directly and indirectly benefit
more than 200,000 households engaged in livestock and irrigated agriculture, improve
the skills of over 5,000 public service staff, and work with 2,100 value chain
input and service suppliers at district, zone and federal levels.
The new research for development project named Livestock
and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders – LIVES was launched
today by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), both members of the CGIAR
Consortium.
It seeks to directly support of the Government of
Ethiopia’s effort to transform smallholder agriculture to be more
market-oriented.
“This project is unique in that it integrates
livestock with irrigated agriculture development and is designed to support the
commercialization of smallholder agriculture by testing and scaling lessons to
other parts of Ethiopia,” LIVES project manager, Azage Tegegne emphasized .
The manager added that it will be an excellent
opportunity for CGIAR centres to work hand in hand with Ethiopian research and
development institutions.”
During the launch the Ethiopian State Minister of
Agriculture Wondirad Mandefro welcomed the project as a direct contribution to
both the Growth Transformation Plan (GTP) and the Agricultural Growth Program
(AGP) of the Ethiopian Government.
“We expect this investment to generate technologies,
practices and results that can be implemented at larger scales and ultimately
benefit millions of Ethiopian smallholder producers as well as the consumers of
their products,” Canadian Head of Aid, Amy Baker
Canada which funds the project expect it to contribute
to Ethiopia’s efforts to drive agricultural transformation, improve nutritional
status and unlock sustainable economic growth through creation of new and innovative partnerships that will
drive agricultural growth.
The project will take place over six years in 31
districts of ten zones in Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and
Peoples and Tigray regions, where 8% of the country’s human population resides
to improve the incomes of smallholder farmers through value chains development
in livestock (dairy, beef, sheep and goats, poultry and apiculture) and
irrigated agriculture (fruits, vegetables and fodder).
"Projects
that support local farmers can help a community in so many ways; not only by
providing food and the most appropriate crops, but also by teaching long term
skills that can have an impact for years to come," said Canada Minister of
International Cooperation the Honourable Julian Fantino.
The project will focus on clusters of districts,
developing and improving livestock production systems and technologies in
animal breeding, feed resources, animal nutrition and management, sustainable
forage seed systems, sanitation and animal health, and higher market
competitiveness.
The launch was also attended by Canadian Ambassador to
Ethiopia David Usher, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and
several Ethiopian government institutes.
©Manuel Odeny
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