A new tracking device developed by a federal information network intelligence agency is where Feto Esimo (PhD) hinges all his hopes to see through the success of a program he has been working on for years. A Director General of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), he expects the devices to help battle a flourishing contraband trade in wheat, causing a growing concern to federal officials.

Feto fears it is impossible to meet domestic demand for wheat as long as contraband trade remains unabated. He turned to the Information Network Security Agency (INSA) to subdue a growing illicit wheat export trade with a crop tracking system a consortium of federal agencies to implement. The Geospatial Information Agency and the Federal Cooperative Agency will team up with the Institute fitting trucks transporting wheat harvested under off-season irrigation with tracking devices.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's (PhD) administration initiated the off-season farming programme two years ago, pledging to substitute wheat imports. This year, close to half a million hectares of land were farmed under cluster and off-season farming initiatives. Officials expect to see 16 million quintals of wheat harvested, facilitating agricultural inputs provision and equipment to smallholder farmers engaged in irrigation farming. A hefty 400 million Br budget has been apportioned to the programme this year.

However, the efforts are undermined by a growing practice of exporting wheat illegally, according to Feto.

"[The culprits] use the foreign currency to finance import businesses," he said.

Feto, who previously lectured at Hawassa University, has led the programme since its inception while serving as director-general of the Oromia Agricultural Research Institute. The Oromia Regional State is home to nearly 260,000hct cultivated under the programme, while the participants in the Amhara Regional State grow crops on 28,000hct. Grains are among the major commodities sold through illicit cross-border trade. Others include livestock, fabric and electronics.

The past decade has seen large volumes of wheat imported to stabilise the market and provide welfare to low-income households. Imports have nearly tripled to 1.7 million tonnes annually over the last 10 years. Financing the procurements has put pressure on the federal budget. In the five years beginning 2012, the federal government spent 33.7 billion Br to ship in a little over 4.1 million tonnes of wheat. Expenditure in 2017 jumped to 10.4 billion Br.

Domestic wheat production is sufficient to cover two-thirds of demand. According to official data, farmers harvested close to 336 million tons of grain during the Meher season from off-season irrigated wheat, of which 16.2 million tons were from off-season irrigated wheat harvested on 405,000hct.

The government's attempt to fill the gap by buying wheat from international suppliers has been rocky. Last year, two international suppliers saw their contracts cancelled due to defaults or contractual breaches. The troubles are likely to worsen because of the war in Eastern Europe. Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat exports. As the armed conflict evolves and trade sanctions set in, other countries have begun to ban the export of major grain crops. India, the world's second-largest wheat producer, is among them.

“There's a severe shortage of wheat in the international market,” said Feto. “We need to safeguard what we are producing.”