Agricultural Development Program Launches a Five Year Project

Jul 8 , 2023

Over 2.3 million small-holding farmers are expected to benefit from an African farmer-centred agricultural development program, AGRA, that launches its five-year project in Ethiopia. The program aims to develop sustainable farming practices, create market linkages, improve seed variants, and foster policy and state capability. An agreement was signed between Hailemariam Desalegn, board chairman of AGRA, and Fikru Regassa (PhD), state minister for Agriculture at the ceremony held at the Skylight Hotel on Africa Avenue (Bole Road). Hailemariam said the strategic plan is ambitious and attainable recalling instrumental support given by AGRA  to small-holder farmers in Africa since 2006. The strategy aims at bolstering the production of smallholder farmers by strengthening their resilience in the face of various climatic shocks and building the capacity of the agricultural institutions. The study conducted by Kusse Hailen 2021 indicates that smallholder farmers constitute 95pc of the total farmland cultivated in Ethiopia. It notes that smallholder farming is epitomized by subsistence farming and a lack of agricultural inputs, further pushing food self-sufficiency out of reach.