Pastoralism as adaptive as irrigated agriculture in Ethiopia’s Awash - researchers

By Chelsea Diana

LONDON (AlertNet) - Despite Ethiopia’s heavy investment in irrigated cotton and sugarcane farming in the Awash valley, pastoralism could be just as effective a way to deal with changing climate conditions there, researchers from the Imperial College of London say in a new report.

The study found that pastoralism, a traditional lifestyle in the region, is in some cases more profitable and less harmful to the environment than cotton and sugarcane farming, according to researchers Roy Behnke and Carol Kerven.

The study, published by the International Institute for Environment and Development, analysed the costs and benefits of irrigated farming versus pastoralism in the Awash River valley, a lush green area in the middle of arid desert in central Ethiopia.

“Reasonably sound (pastoralism) still has problems, but I think pastoral farming is as well or better adaptive than the alternatives,” Behnke told AlertNet.

Pastoralism is a system of raising livestock in which a farmer and his animals move between areas to find fresh pasture and water. It is particularly common in arid areas where settled agriculture is more difficult.

According to the report, the Ethiopian government said pastoralism was a good option 30 or 40 years ago, but with falling rainfall levels and recurrent droughts, settled livestock and crop farming would be a better option.

But research has “chronicled the remarkable resilience, creativity, and increasing sophistication of African pastoral societies and of the civil society and advocacy groups that represent their interests,” the study said.

Ethiopia’s herders already are no longer strictly nomads. These days, researchers said, some educate their children, farm some crops, sell livestock, take up paid employment, hold high positions in government and teach in universities.

But as their land is turned to irrigated farming, there is little evidence the new systems have increased stability, according to the report. In fact, evidence suggests the large plantations and processing complexes are more exposed to environmental and economic problems.

DAMS AFFECTING PASTORAL FAMILIES

Families in the area now suffer “man-made famine” due to dam construction and irrigation that exclusively benefits farm owners and their migrant labor force, the study said. The capture of water for irrigation has caused loss of grazing and water resources and environmental degradation, the study found.

In this case, government programmes aimed at building resilience to climate change “are not a solution, but a cause of increased instability in pastoral livelihood support systems already exposed to (changing) rainfall, disease and security risks,” the report charged.

While Behnke recognizes dam construction has benefits – including the creation of hydropower, which Ethiopia needs and which could lead to it earning income from power exports – the dams have taken money away from projects to support local farmers, he said, and may have political overtones.

“Why was all this money invested in making these huge changes when there was no clear advantage except that it was a way for authorities to take over property?” he asked. “The motive was more a political one, to maintain control over these resources, rather than a purely economic one.”

Behnke believes a combination of pastoralism and irrigated agriculture could provide a balanced economic solution.

“Ethiopia should move toward a mixture, and figure out an estimate of when it’s economic to do pastoral farming and when it’s better to do sugarcane or cotton farming,” Behnke said. “ . . . Any economy needs diversification in its agriculture.”

“But there needs to be more careful investigation,” Behnke said. At the moment, there is no current census cataloging the number of pastoralists in Ethiopia, he said.

As land and water is taken away from traditional pastoralists, the country “needs to pay these people off appropriately,” he said. Right now, pastoral communities are simply losing resources and “it’s not okay.”

Chelsea Diana is an AlertNet Climate intern.

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Marine agriculture offers a new solution to the problem of water scarcity

Ricardo Radulovich, professor of water science at the University of Costa Rica, points out that in Africa irrigation is a very limited option, due to lack of water, and rain-fed agriculture is affected by prolonged dry seasons and rainfall variability during the rainy seasons. A case in point is the Sahel in west Africa, where drought has grown increasingly frequent and where emergency aid was needed last year to forestall famine.

Yet Radulovich believes that Africa's lakes can be part of the solution to the continent's agricultural limitations. Several African countries are endowed with lakes, some very large, that occupy a surface of more than 150,000 square kilometres. Why not use that water surface to grow food and aquatic plants, and for fisheries, asks Radulovich, who began his career as an agricultural water scientist 10 years ago.

"The key issue is water," Radulovich said in a telephone interview from Costa Rica. "We have land, but water is the limiting element. You can have agriculture if you have water. If we use that lake surface to produce crops, aquatic plants, we won't waste water."

Radulovich and his team, including Schery Umanzor, have already begun prototype projects on Lake Nicaragua, where they have grown lettuce, tomato, cucumber and cantaloupe melons on floating rafts, a continuation of trials that were undertaken at sea in 2001 at the Gulf of Nicoya, on the Pacific coast. The tomato roots can trail in the water or be potted with a cotton rope dangling in the water from the pot, which draws in water to the plant.

The size of the rafts can vary, going up to six square metres, and can be made simply and cheaply, from plastic bottles, for example. Where the water is polluted by horticulture, an option is to grow flowers. One advantage of growing crops on water is that they are not as vulnerable to insects as they would be on land.

The team's pioneering techniques have earned them a $100,000 (£62,000) grant from Grand Challenges Canada, which is funded by the Canadian government. Targeting innovations for developing countries, Grand Challenges Canada will provide additional funding of $1m for those ideas that prove effective.

Radulovich and his colleagues also see potential in aquatic plants such as azolla, water hyacinth and alligator weed. Frequently dismissed as weeds that clutter waterways, such plants are seen by Radulovich as enriching biodiversity, and as a source of nutrients and habitat for small fish and snails that attract bigger fish. He believes that hyacinth, for example, can be used as feed for herbivorous fish such as Chinese carp, animals and even humans, in the form of flour.

"Currently, where their blooms are a nuisance and clutter waterways, the new trend is to harvest and use them," Radulovich says. "The next trend must be: cultivate them. All of this without even beginning selection and genetic improvement programmes, which in a few years, with a fraction of what is spent in agricultural improvement, can lead to tremendous advances."

Radulovich is particularly excited at the possibility of growing rice by attaching rice plants to ropes. "Even if the water is low in oxygen, maybe you can produce three rice crops a year, but whether we can do it economically I don't know," he says.

Several countries have expressed interest in the concept of marine agriculture, including Uganda, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Malawi. But Radulovich sees the technological problems as only the start of the challenge, with cultural change, including food habits, posing greater hurdles.

"If people need it, and they do, the water environment must be used intelligently, and even changed, to an extent, without biological or environmental chaos."

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Ethiopia: Institute Inaugurates Modern Agricultural Laboratory

Addis Ababa — The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research yesterday inaugurated Agricultural Quality Research Laboratory. The renovated crop testing laboratory will improve the quality of agricultural products making the country competitive in the international market.

Inaugurating the laboratory, Agriculture Minister Deribew Tefera said that, it was almost two years ago today that the Ministry opened the first agricultural products quality Monitoring and Testing Laboratory to be the country's main quality laboratory for coffee and other agricultural commodities. The lab was established in collaboration with Digata Industries and Development Partners, UNDP and JICA.

"The renovation and remodeling of this laboratory is also conceived with the basic theme of quality where all agricultural research is to begin with data quality objectives framework that takes into account the quality criteria of destination markets or internationally acknowledged quality standards. We will continue aligning our human resources and institutional processes to fulfill our development objectives and our principal goal of eradicating poverty through transformed agricultural sector," the Minister added.

Institute Public Relations Head Deresse Teshome told journalists that the institute equipped itself with a modern sample crops technology museum which allows stakeholders and investors to access accurate information on agricultural products in Ethiopia.

It was indicated that the renovation also included the training of laboratory technicians and researchers in quality management and the application of latest standard procedures. By the end of the national Growth and Transformation Plan period (2014/15), Ethiopia expects to generate 6.58 billion USD revenue from the export of 3.81 million tonnes of agricultural products. As it is known, agriculture is the cornerstone of the Ethiopian economy and accounts for 41 per cent of the GDP, close to 80 per cent of export earnings and employs 80 per cent of the country's labour force.

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The not-so-rosy realities of running a large agriculture project in Africa

BY JACO MARITZ 

Africa’s agricultural potential has come under the spotlight in recent years. The continent holds around 60% of the world’s available and unexploited cropland, and with growing demand for food from emerging markets, Africa is expected to play an important future role in feeding the world. However, despite the lucrative returns that foreign investors can achieve by investing in African agriculture, the on-the-ground realities of operating in the continent is often less rosy. In many cases establishing a large-scale commercial agriculture project in Africa is a long and rocky road.

During the recent Ethiopia Investment Summit, held in Addis Ababa, representatives from two foreign companies that have invested in agriculture projects in Ethiopia, gave an interesting glimpse into the everyday challenges they experience.

Virgin land

Indian agribusiness company Karuturi first started operations in Ethiopia in 2005 with a 10 hectare flower farm. Today it is a major producer of cut roses in the country. Karuturi has also started with the growing of cereals, rice and sugar from its 100,000 hectare farm in Gambella province, in western Ethiopia.

The land that Karuturi is farming on has never been cultivated. “We are talking of virgin lands, which have never been ploughed for hundreds of years. We are trying to do that for the first time,” said Birinder Singh, executive director of Karuturi Agro Products.

Morrell Agro Industries, a US company, has also invested in 10,000 hectares of farmland in south-eastern Ethiopia, 200 kilometres from Somalia, where it grows drought resistant wheat seed.

Wallace Odd, executive vice president of Morrell Agro, said that the company had to put in a lot of work to make the soil suitable for agriculture. He explained that it takes three to five years in order to aerate the soil and to “get it to do the kind of things that land has to do to grow seed. We are finding that we are having to rip [up to] six feet deep to turn it.”

The dusty soil also struggles to hold water. “We have found that 75% to 83% of the water runs off. When you look at the soil and the top soil, it is very dusty and it takes an awful lot for that dust and that type of dirt to hold the moisture,” said Odd. To overcome this Morrell Agro made divots, the size of half a tyre, in the field that act as small “holding tanks” for the water.

Workers, villages … and wild animals

Another challenge faced by Karuturi is the scarcity of workers in the thinly-populated area of Gambella. Singh noted that when Karuturi’s farm is fully developed it will require around 25,000 people to work in the fields. Urbanisation is also not helping the situation. “Able-bodied men who can work on the fields are leaving the villages and going to the urban areas … What is left behind is children and women,” said Singh.

Karuturi has, however, discovered that people are willing to relocate to the area if they are given proper housing. “We are creating large-scale infrastructure in terms of bringing people from outside our farm … People live in straw houses and if you are able to create infrastructure and provide them proper housing, people are ready to come and stay over there.”

Morrell Agro learned some hard lessons with managing the local villagers. There are five villages in the area, each with its own idea of how the company should be farming, and how many people from the village should be employed.

“We had to deal with villages. We had to deal with compensating people for land, and that gets very emotional. Our first farm manager was a little aggressive. He was too aggressive in the culture. He got hit in the back of the head with an axe, and we had to medically evacuate him …” Odd explained.

Things have improved considerably for Odd and his team. “We’ve worked with the villages … We determined what the problems are … We’ve built a school. We’ve put in two wells. Right now, from one well, we have 500 to 800 people a day coming to get water from that well … So a lot of what we are doing is to blend in with the culture, in with the communities.”

Some of the difficulties faced by these farmers are also more unusual. Next to Karuturi’s farm is a major national park with around 800,000 antelopes. To protect its crops from the animals, Karuturi has now requested the government to give it permission to put solar powered electric fences around its farm.

Government support

Singh said that the Ethiopian government has assisted Karuturi with some of the problems it were facing. For example, Karuturi was struggling to find quality seeds and agro-chemicals in the local market, but the government has allowed it to directly import these inputs. Four mobile network towers have also been installed on its farm. “Communication has become easy, internet has become easy.”

He underlined the importance of making the challenges experienced by commercial farmers known to the government. “For the country this type of commercial farming is new. As we are new to the country, the country is new to this concept of commercial farming. There are enough interactive sessions where you can put forward your points. If the decision makers are convinced that there needs to be a policy change, it happens.”

Looking ahead

Despite the challenges, both companies remain optimistic about their ventures in Ethiopia.

“We are glad to be here … We are passionate about Ethiopia … and we look forward to working here, and working with the challenges and helping to solve the difficulties of doing business as well as the difficulties of farming,” said Odd.

Said Singh: “There are challenges, there are concerns, but still Ethiopia is a wonderful country to cut into agriculture. It offers an excellent recipe for agriculture – excellent lands, water, fertility of the lands, cheap labour … stable government, and a corruption free regime.”

“Agriculture is a journey, and we have only made a beginning. The results cannot come overnight,” he added.

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Ethiopia to Suspend Land Allocation for Agricultural Investment

Meron Tekleberhan

Ethiopia is to suspend the provision of new land for agricultural investment after a study that showed more than 50% of the land in the hands of investors is yet to be utilized according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The ministry has issued licenses to more than 11,773 domestic and international investors with a total registered capital of 132 billion birr, but just 5,284 of these have began operations according to Tarekegn Tsige, Head of Public Relations with the ministry.

The ministry has not taken the appropriate measures against inactive investors because it is aware that the land it had provided was by and large inconvenient for the immediate launch of operations due to the poor infrastructure and clearing work required before investors could implement their project he said.

Even so the ministry has repossessed some lands and that has decided to suspend providing land plots to investors until it can further determine the effective use of the land already supplied for investment purposes explained Tarekegn.

In spite of this however the ministry is encouraged that there are many investors who launched operations successfully on more than 2.2 million hectares of land claimed Tarekegn. Of the 2.2 million hectares 567,651 hectares is being developed by international investors he added.

Ethiopia offers various incentives to international investors including tax exemption for a certain grace period, the availability of bank loans, tax free import of equipment and low rates of land lease noted Tarekegn.

Source: Ethiopian Press Agency  

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Jain Irrigation to invest $375 million in African countries

PTI 

NEW DELHI: Jain Irrigation Systems today said the company will invest $375 million (about Rs 2,000 crore) over the next few years to improve income of small and marginal farmers in African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda.

In a filing to the BSE, Jain Irrigation Systems (JISL) said it "has agreed to partner with G-8 and various African nations to invest in Africa."

"JISL has committed investment and projects of $375 million over the next few years to build sustainable agriculture and to improve income of small holder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa," the filing said.

JISL makes drip and sprinkler irrigation systems and components, piping systems, plastic sheets and agro processed products, among other farm products.

It has presence in 120 countries and is one the largest drip irrigation companies in the world.

JISL said it will partner and collaborate with the governments of Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Ghana, Cote d'lvoire, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and others.

The company said that it is launching significant African expansion programme which aims to provide an integrated set of irrigation and infrastructure solutions for small-holder and commercial farmers.

It would also invest in creation of storage, handling, supply chain and processing infrastructure in the African countries.

"In the next few months, Jain Irrigation plans to work closely with partner countries and G-8's initiative 'the New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa' to select priority value chains and regional locations to develop a feasibility study for the integrated approach," the company said.

Shares of the company were trading up by 0.66 per cent at Rs 76.40 apiece on the BSE at 1400 hrs

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Diageo to commit $3.5million into agriculture development in Africa

By: ALEXANDER CHIEJINA

Diageo, one of the world’s leading premium drinks company, recently announced that it has signed letters of intent to foster partnerships and projects that will aid in the agricultural development of Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Diageo is also expected to develop and implement scalable barley farming project in Sebeta, Ethiopia and a scalable sorghum value chain project in Mogoro, Tanzania.  The projects, when fully realised, will represent a total of $3.5M of investment and will begin to be implemented in 2012.

This new investment was announced at the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security hosted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. On the eve of this weekend’s G8 Summit, this high-level symposium brings together US President Barack Obama, with G8 and African leaders, businesses, international organisations and civil society to discuss new activities to advance global agricultural development, and food and nutrition security in Africa.

Paul Walsh, CEO Diageo and signatory of the letters of intent revealed that the complex global challenges currently been experienced from climate change to resource scarcity will require even greater cooperation and collaboration of the public sector, private sector and civil society.

According to Walsh “At Diageo we know that to achieve our business aims we have to engage our stakeholders across the whole value chain to create strong socio-economic development programmes.  It is my firm belief that the most genuinely strategic and forward looking businesses treat sustainability as a core component of business delivery.”

In Africa, Diageo currently sources about 50 percent of its raw materials locally, and aims to increase the sourcing of local raw materials to 70 percent, which is an increase of more than 30 percent from a 2007 baseline. The new projects in Ethiopia and Tanzania is expected to provide Diageo with a long-term, secure and sustainable source of raw materials, which reduces exposure to increasingly unpredictable changes in availability of material, and potentially volatile global commodity markets.

In Ethiopia, Diageo is to build a public-private partnership through which the Company will work with the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) to design and implement a barley contract farming project strategy.  In support of the G8 Member’s pledge and in line with Diageo’s own commitment to development in Africa over the next 12 months, Diageo will design and test a pilot barley contract farming project with the aim to source 1000 metric tons (MT) barley from a substantial number of local smallholders in the first year.

In the years that follow, the project could increase in scale, extending its work with both local smallholders and larger farmers, with a potential capacity to source up to 20,000 MT of barley within Ethiopia for local use and/or export.

In Tanzania, Diageo will collaborate with the Government of Tanzania to develop and implement a scalable sorghum value chain project in Morogoro that will scale-up sorghum cultivation and sourcing in Tanzania up to a potential 20,000 MT/year by 2016, for local use and/or export.  They will also work to build genuine appetite and capacity (e.g. training, financial and physical infrastructure) to build a sustainable sorghum value chain which consists of local smallholder ‘satellite’ farming communities commercially connected with larger ‘nucleus’ farms, and will promote the development and sharing of sustainable sorghum cultivation and post-harvest practices.

Nick Blazquez, President, Diageo Africa, commented: “Diageo is proud to take part in this leadership initiative between African governments, the private sector and development organizations to accelerate the growth of agriculture in Africa. As a business that has operated across the continent for many decades, we see firsthand the importance of this agenda to local economic growth and the social empowerment of farming communities, and are fully committed  to Grow Africa and supportive of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.  In the spirit of partnership, we are excited to work closely with the Governments of Ethiopia and Tanzania to create innovative solutions that are commercially and environmentally sustainable, scalable and socially inclusive.

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