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ISIS Press Release 23/06/04
Greening Ethiopia for Self-Sufficiency
Famines and Ethiopia and other African countries have become irrevocably
linked in the public mind since Bob Geldof’s Live Aid Concert in the
1980s. In 2002, we carried the first and only report (Science in Society
#16) on how Ethiopia is determined to feed herself. In this present
exclusive mini-series, we update the entire story of the remarkable successes
achieved in reviving the traditional farming practice of pit composting that
has now convinced Ethiopia to adopt organic agriculture for the entire country.
Greening Ethiopia
Sue Edwards reports on the challenges and opportunities facing
Ethiopia as steps are taken to reverse the ecological and social damages that
have locked the country in poverty.
Challenges
Ethiopia is a land-locked country in the ‘Horn of Africa’ to
the northeast of Africa. Its topography is very diverse, encompassing mountains
over 4000 m above sea level, high plateaus, deep gorges cut by rivers and arid
lowlands including the Afar Depression 110 m below sea level.
The South Westerly is one of the country’s three moisture-bearing
wind systems. Originating from the South Atlantic, it brings the greatest
amount of moisture during the wet season (June–August). The mean annual
rainfall is highest (above 2 700 mm) in the southwestern highlands, gradually
decreasing to below 200 mm in the southeastern lowlands, and to100 mm or less
in the northeastern lowlands. The mean temperature ranges from a high of
45°C (April–September) in the Afar Depression to 0°C or lower at
night in the highlands (November-February).
Ethiopia’s population was 53.48 million in 1994, of which 86.3
percent was rural. It grew at the rate of 2.9 percent per annum between 1984
and 1994; by 2003, it was estimated to have exceeded 67 million and could reach
94.5 million by 2015. The population has an average age of just 21.8 years,
with 44% under 15 years and the group 15 to 25 years making up more than 20%.
School enrolment has increased, but the literacy rate remains about 35%. There
is a high dependency ratio and although official unemployment is around 3%, it
exceeds 30% in the urban youth, while under-employment is widespread in the
rural population.
The country currently faces a number of environmental challenges
resulting directly or indirectly from human activities, exacerbated by rapid
population growth and the consequent increase in the exploitation of natural
resources. The challenges range from land degradation to environmental
pollution, due to the misguided application of chemicals in agriculture, for
domestic purposes or for the manufacture of industrial products. Ethiopia has
accumulated one of the largest stockpiles of obsolete pesticides in the
continent, estimated to be around 3000 tonnes in 2003. The misuse of natural
resources includes burning dung as fuel, instead of using it as a soil
conditioner. Losses to crop production from burning dung and soil erosion are
estimated at over 600,000 tonnes annually, or twice the average yearly requests
for food aid.
Opportunities
Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries in the world, and its
economy rests mainly on agriculture. It accounts for more than 75 percent of
total exports, over 85 percent of employment; and about 45 percent of the GDP
(gross domestic product). Coffee alone makes up more than 87 percent of the
total agricultural exports. Hides and skins are the next most important export
items, as raw, processed or manufactured goods.
Several seasonal and perennial crops are grown. The main ones are
cereals (tef, barley, maize, wheat, sorghum, oats and finger millet), root
crops (enset, Irish, sweet and indigenous potatoes, taro, yams), pulses (horse
bean, fenugreek, field pea, haricot bean, chickpea, grass pea and lentil), oil
crops (niger seed, linseed, safflower, rapeseed, groundnut, safflower and
sesame), vegetables (cabbage, tomato, hot peppers, pumpkin, onions and garlic)
and many herbs and spices. The major cash and industrial crops are coffee, tea,
citrus, papaya, banana, avocado, mango, oil seeds, pulses, cotton, sisal,
tobacco, fruits, vegetables, spices, sugar cane and chat (also called mira).
Agriculture is one of the key sectors in which to devote efforts in
accelerating socio-economic development and reducing poverty.
Problems of chemical inputs
The Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG-2000) programme was started by the Ministry
of Agriculture in 1995 to boost food crop production through a focused campaign
to get farmers to use chemical fertilizer along with high yielding varieties
(HYVs) and pesticides. However, it promoted only the adoption of fertilizer
through credit schemes and subsidized prices. Prior to 1995, Ethiopia had one
of the lowest per capita uses of fertilizer in the world. Under SG-2000,
farmers were allowed to select and use the best of their own local varieties
rather than buy seed of HYVs. Very little use of pesticides has developed
except for dealing with migratory pests, particularly armyworm, and local
swarms such as Pachnoda beetles on sorghum and the endemic Wello Bush Cricket
on cereals.
Since 1998, the subsidy on fertilizer has been withdrawn while the price
of fertilizer has risen. Despite that, by 2001, around 5% of the smallholder
farmers of the country, particularly those growing maize, had become accustomed
to using fertilizer. But that year, the price dropped out of the bottom of the
maize market and the farm gate price in some areas fell to the equivalent of
US$1.50 per 100 kg of maize.
In 2002, many farmers were heavily in debt and withdrew from the
fertilizer schemes. Many parts of the country were also hit by drought with the
result that yields declined, or crops failed completely and the government
requested food aid for more than 14 million people, nearly a quarter of the
total population.
Expanding horticultural production is making increasing use of chemical
inputs, often with little or no understanding of either how to handle those
chemicals safely, or how to use them correctly. For example, a survey by the
local Safe Environment Association and PAN-UK (Pesticides Action Network, UK)
found malathion being sprayed on the leaves of the local stimulant, chat
(Catha edulis), in order to make them shiny and more attractive to
purchasers. Another group of farmers had been using DDT to control insect pests
on chat until they associated increasing stomach problems with the use of the
chemical.
The use of agrochemicals in smallholder agriculture is rapidly
increasing; and this is in addition to the substantial amounts already deployed
on the few large-scale farms, particularly cotton farms. The misuse of
pesticides and fertilizers is damaging human health and polluting the
surrounding environment.
Greening Ethiopia
In 2002, the Ethiopian government issued a new policy guideline on Rural
Development and set up a supra-ministry to coordinate activities. The Rural
Development policy guideline regards environmental rehabilitation as an
essential factor in increasing productivity.
The Environmental Policy of Ethiopia has incorporated a basic principle
similar to one adopted in organic agriculture: "Ensure that essential
ecological processes and life support systems are sustained, biological
diversity is preserved and renewable natural resources are used in such a way
that their regenerative and productive capabilities are maintained, and, where
possible, enhanced...; where this capacity is already impaired to seek through
appropriate interventions a restoration of that capability."
Key elements of the policy cover soil husbandry and sustainable
agriculture, and can support the development of more specific policy and
regulations for organic agriculture. These include promoting the use of
appropriate organic matter and nutrient management for improving soil
structure, nutrient status and microbiology; maintaining traditional
integration of crop and animal husbandry in the highlands, and enhancing the
role of pastoralists in the lowlands; promoting water conservation; focusing
agricultural research and extension on farming and land use systems as a whole,
with attention to peculiarities of local conditions; promoting
agroforestry/farm forestry; ensuring that potential costs of soil degradation
through erosion, chemical degradation and pollution are taken into account;
shifting the emphasis in crop breeding to composites and multi-lines to
increase adaptability to environmental changes and to better resist pests and
diseases; using biological and cultural methods, resistant or tolerant
varieties or breeds, and integrated pest and disease management in preference
to chemical controls; and applying the precautionary principle in making
decisions.
This enabling policy context dovetails with a unique experiment in
sustainable development and ecological land management conducted with farmers
in Tigray (see following article).
Source
Walta Information Center, 2004. Symposium Proceedings:
Population and Development in Ethiopia: Now and in the Future, Addis Ababa, 17
June 2003.
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