Afar Regional State Boosts Agri Irrigation

Jan 1 , 2023


Agricultural productivity through irrigation is boosted in the Afar Regional State as the federal government hands over 500 water pumps and 30 tractors. The Regional State President Awol Arba received the first round of farming technologies and tractors with Aisha Mohammed, Irrigation & Lowlands Minister. The support will play a critical role in the ongoing efforts to engage the Afar youth in the agriculture sector, said Aisha. The region can potentially develop more than 120,000hct of areas in the Middle Awash. Awol Arba said the support would greatly help increase productivity, especially in areas affected by water shortages and floods. “We are optimistic that the regional governments will use this technology to enhance productivity,” said Birhanu Megersa, state minister for Irrigation. To date, the Ministry has distributed about 4,000 water pumps to ten regions and the two city administrations supporting their winter irrigated wheat and vegetable production. Its officials have also supplied tractors to three regions to encourage agricultural mechanization. Despite its dependency on agriculture, which contributes to 40pc of the GDP, Ethiopia utilizes only five percent of its 21.8 million hct cropland that could be farmed through irrigation.


Radar

LOFTY CONSTRUCTS

A painting depicts traditional farming equipment at the Science Museum around the Arat Kilo area. Since the seizing of power by the current administration, large-scale architectural projects marked by grandeur have proliferated across the capital. The satellite city being built in the Yeka mountains, which is set to cost around 600 billion Br, according to the Prime Minister, is one such project yet to see the light of day. Some estimates put the plot size for the project at around 503hct despit...


Radar

CLEAN BILL

A queue for diagnostics at the nation's largest state-owned hospital, Black Lion. As the health sector is largely funded by development partners from abroad, decreased support as donors shied away due to the war in the North has required the suspension of several new projects. Social health Insurance slated for next year was scraped due to a budgetary shortfall of five billion Birr. With the physician-to-patient ratio titering at around 1:30,000, queues in public hospitals are commonplace in Eth...


Radar

ACRID GROUNDS

A street vendor puts up pepper for sale around the Lideta area. With agricultural produce accounting for the largest share of the nation's GDP at around 40pc, setbacks in the delivery of fertilizer have become a source of strife in rural Ethiopia. Only a third of the scheduled fertilizer of 1.3 million quintals has been distributed into the hands of farmers this year. This is despite the year being one in which the government claims to have met local demand for wheat and started exporting. Low p...