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Tag: Tigray

Shared priorities and plans for partnership

Written by Enawgaw Sisay on . Posted in News.

CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts with representatives from ATI and EIAR. (Photo: Enawgaw Shibeshi/CIMMYT)

In early September 2022, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Director General Bram Govaerts made a brief visit to Ethiopia — his first since taking on the role in 2021. Over two days in Addis Ababa he met with a number of government representatives, donors and partners, including the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR), Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and The Development Fund.

Discussions centered around South-South cooperation and how CIMMYT’s strategic priority to transform agrifood systems can support efforts to improve the livelihoods of resource poor farmers in Ethiopia and national food security. Through longstanding collaboration with local partners, CIMMYT has continued to support the country through maize and wheat germplasm supply, joint technology generation and demonstrations at scale, but the visit provided an opportunity to identify shared priorities and key areas for partnership.

Supporting a plan for self-sufficiency

In a meeting with representatives from the ATI and EIAR, the CIMMYT delegation were briefed on the elements of the Government of Ethiopia’s ten-year development plan and its targets to achieve food self-sufficiency by 2030, with commercialization, advocacy on land ownership, and financial sector reform emerging as key areas of focus.

In terms of policy change, explained ATI Director General Mandefro Nigussie, there are ten core agendas that the government has set and plans to implement in the coming years. These include land governance and advisory; public-private partnership; marketing and infrastructure; and digital agriculture. The continued need for capacity building emerged as a key concern, as high staff turnover has meant many of those trained by CIMMYT previously had now left their posts.

Govaerts thanked ATI and EIAR for their collaboration so far, noting that this would surely continue as CIMMYT planned to double engagement, collaboration, production and partnerships in the coming years. Addressing the concerns raised around capacity building, particularly the training of experts, he explained that training opportunities had been limited in the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic and budget constraints, but capacity building for research and extension was included in the list of future action points, including a ministerial visit to CIMMYT offices in either Mexico or India.

The discussions were productive, and participants reached agreement on several other points, including collaboration on the establishment of a One Stop Shop by ATI; supporting EIAR’s data warehouse development that will provide farmers with access to an agronomy advisory services hotline; and supporting the breading of wheat for heat tolerance and Ethiopia’s irrigated wheat initiative.

Representatives from The Development Fund, a non-government organization (NGO) from Norway, meet with Govaerts. (Photo: Enawgaw Shibeshi/CIMMYT)

Strengthening collaboration

Govaerts later met with several representatives from The Development Fund, including Country Director for Ethiopia Ulf Flink, to discuss opportunities for strengthening partnerships for greater impact. The Development Fund’s Ethiopian portfolio has evolved over four decades from supporting relief work by one Tigrayan organization to supporting multiple projects with several organizations in Tigray and Afar, with a focus on socio-economic development to alleviate poverty, and improve food security and natural resource management in dryland areas.

While the organization has recently encountered challenges in Tigray, with several programs disrupted by instability, Flink noted that the implementation of The Development Fund’s collaborative projects with CIMMYT are progressing well and pointed out opportunities to scale-up joint operations in the region, where more than 5,000 farmers have been supported so far.

Govaerts thanked The Development Fund for the strong collaboration so far and emphasized CIMMYT’s need for continued strategic partnership in South-South collaboration that can make a difference to smallholders in the country. He also pointed to CIMMYT’s aim of doubling impact and coverage, highlighting that changes in partners’ thinking and ways of intervening could be opportunities to strengthen collaboration with The Development Fund.

Cognizant of the limitations imposed by major challenges such as funding modalities — which are shifting towards humanitarian rather than development assistance — and the increasing price of mechanization, meeting participants were able to agree on a number of action points to support future collaborative work. These include continued support to project implementation in Tigray when the security situation allows; exploring opportunities to strengthen collaborations in other countries such as Malawi; and supporting research-based advocacy at both regional and zonal levels.

Additionally, CIMMYT will share its methodology for Integrated Development and research-based humanitarian development support, and work with The Development Fund to provide improved crop varieties and grain with smallholder famers in drought- and conflict-affected areas where projects are being implemented.

Kidane Mengistu is much happier with the threshing service she gets from the service provider. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

Shared responsibilities and equal economic benefits

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Features.

Women play a crucial role in Ethiopian agriculture. A significant portion of their time is spent in the field helping their male counterparts with land preparation, planting, weeding and harvesting. Despite this, women face barriers in accessing productive resources and gaining financial benefits.

In 2015 and 2016, there was a 9.8% gap in farming plot productivity between woman- and man- managed farms in Ethiopia, which translated to a $203.5 million loss in the country’s GDP. Access to mechanization services though service provision could contribute to decreasing this gap.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the German development agency GIZ have been testing service provision models in different areas of Ethiopia to expand small-scale agricultural mechanization that would benefit both men and women.

Zewdu Tesfaye, a smallholder farmer and mother of two, lives in the Amba Alaje district of the Tigray region. Two years ago, she paid $8 to become a member of the Dellet Agricultural Mechanization Youth Association (DAMYA), established to provide agricultural mechanization services in the area.

Zewdu Tesfaye drives a two-wheel tractor to the irrigation area. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Zewdu Tesfaye drives a two-wheel tractor to the irrigation area. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

Along with other members, Tesfaye provides various services to farmers in her area that need assistance. “I take part in every assignment the group is tasked with. I drive the two-wheel tractor and I support during threshing and irrigation,” she says.

Tesfaye has now secured a job providing these services and has started earning income. In November 2019, she received $72 from the association’s threshing services, which she saved in the bank. If women are given equal opportunities and equal access to resources, she says, they have the capacity to do anything that will empower themselves and change their families’ lives.

DAMYA currently has 12 members — eight men and four women — and all responsibilities are shared, with benefits divided equally. “Agricultural mechanization is an area less accessible to women,” explains group chair Alemayehu Abreha. “Thus, we highly encourage and motivate our women members to maximize their potential and invite other women to witness that everything is possible.”

Belay Tadesse, regional advisor for GIZ’s Integrated Soil Fertility Management project, explained that the initiative aims to benefit both women and men as service providers and recipients. Various trainings are provided for women, so that they are well acquainted with the machinery, as well as with the business aspects of each model. Events and other activities are also helping spread awareness, to attract and encourage more women to get involved in similar jobs, adds Tadesse.

Belay Tadesse shows young women from Dellet how the water should flow. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Belay Tadesse shows young women from Dellet how the water should flow. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

In the Gudiya Billa district, located about 220 kilometers away from Addis Ababa, the introduction of the two-wheel tractor has been a blessing for many farmers in the area, especially women. For Kidane Mengistu, farmer and mother of six, harvesting season used to bring an added strain to her already existing chores. Now everything has changed. Through the new service provision model, Mengistu is able to get help with her daily tasks from Habtamu, a farmer professionally trained in agricultural mechanization. “We now hire Habtamu, a service provider, to get different services like threshing,” she says. “He does the job in few hours with reasonable amount of payment. This has given me ample time to spend on other household chores.”

Kidane Mengistu is much happier with the threshing service she gets from the service provider. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Kidane Mengistu is much happier with the threshing service she gets from the service provider. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

Maize, sorghum and teff are the three main crops grown on Mengistu’s eight hectares of land. With the introduction of the two-wheel tractor and service provision model, she and Habtamu have been able to begin potato irrigation on two hectares — Mengistu provides the land while Habtamu provides and operates the water pump — and together they share costs and income. Mengistu says she and her family have seen firsthand the benefits of the two-wheel tractor and plan to purchase their own someday.