Fruits from the agricultural exhibition (Credits: Ilya Mashkov/wikipaintings)

Attractive and delicious tropical and temperate fruits are much in demand in the local markets of Tigray, particularly Mekelle town. Over the past two decades, research and development partners have worked to improve the regional fruit supply system; mainly through the establishment of public fruit nurseries in some of the major fruit areas.

This has led to the development of high value fruit corridors in some parts of the region. For instance, mango and orange fruit corridors are successfully developed in the Rama-Hamedo plain along the Mereb River; there is a papaya and mango corridor around the Raya-Alamata plain; and there’s a banana and papaya corridor around the north-western flanks of the Tekeze River drainage. These fruit corridors have started supplying fruits to the nearby small and large towns. Targeted customers include juice houses, supermarkets, fruit shops and hotels that established linkages with the private fruit producers. Private consumers have shown a high preference to the taste of these fruits as well.

Most of the successful fruit corridors are in lowland areas. However, a large swath of the regional potential, for instance the highlands of the eastern zone (apple potential areas) and a large part of the central zone (Tekeze and Mereb rivers) remain untapped. The main reasons for limited fruit development  in these areas are largely attributed to:

• shortage of dependable improved fruit seedlings supply
• The scattered planting of a few fruit trees by individual households hardly warrant improved fruit management
• Farmers are discouraged to adopt improved fruit development because some of the introduced non-grafted fruits take more years to bear fruits.

To overcome these challenges, the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project in collaboration with research and development partners, mainly the regional Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development (BoARD) and its district branch offices have initiated a new fruit development intervention in central and eastern zones of Tigray.

The approach integrates private fruit seedling suppliers with fruit development clusters in a new fruit corridor. The new approach was launched to enhance the uptake and development of improved fruit corridors. The key elements of the new approach are: delineation of fruit development clusters of peasant associations (PAs) and establishment of private improved grafted fruit seedling suppliers. 

The fruit development clusters were introduced in 14 PAs in the eastern  zone and in three PAs in the central zone of Tigray. The fruit development clusters entail the growing of improved fruits on adjacent or continuous landholding within an irrigation scheme or village. Using such a ‘cluster’ approach, 69 farmers in the eastern zone planted 1545 grafted seedlings of apple in adjacent landholdings in 2013. Similarly, 52 farmers in the central zone of Tigray planted 1662 mango and avocado grafted seedlings.

The establishment or strengthening of private fruit seedling suppliers follows along the delineated fruit development clusters. For instance, four private improved grafted fruit producers and suppliers are functional in the highlands of Atsbi-Womberta district in the eastern zone. The private seedling suppliers were initially organized and trained by the Improving Productivity and Marketing Success (IPMS) project. These private fruit seedling suppliers have started marketing grafted apple seedlings to other farmers in the eastern zone. More and more private grafted seedling suppliers are also emerging in districts of LIVES in eastern Tigray.

The private grafted fruit seedling suppliers are purposely aligned with PAs for irrigated fruit development.  In the central zone, primarily in Dura and Tahitay Logomti PAs, the focus of private fruit supply and development is mainly on tropical fruits such as mango and avocado. So far, four private grafted fruit suppliers are successfully operating in the central zone. The supply of grafted fruit seedlings is expected to start in the next rainy season. The private grafted fruit supply centers are spatially aligned with the targeted PAs ecologically suitable for the production and marketing of mango and avocado as indicated by the performance of privately managed pockets of the fruit trees.

In this approach, some positive advantages have emerged:

1. the approach enables effective skills and knowledge sharing and transfer among fruit seedling suppliers, growers, other value chain actors and service providers.
2. the cluster of fruit development has the potential to trigger competitive marketing.
3. In the medium and long term, fruit growers can make informed decisions on fruit variety selection based on the performance of fruits in nearby sites.
4. The cluster based grafted seedling supply could reduce the introduction of fruit diseases and insect pests.
5. The beneficiaries of the fruit development clusters have been grouped into manageable co-located units.
6. Beneficiaries have developed practicable bylaws that help them protect their fruit trees from freely roaming animals and passers by.
7. Concurrent feed development is an additional incentive that reduces the pressure of livestock open grazing on established fruit orchards.

Integrating support for private grafted fruit  seedling suppliers with fruit development clusters is expected to enhance the income of both parties in a sustainable way. Indeed, a new fruit development corridor initiative will improve the environmental services through the transformation of the crop lands into year round green fruits. Once widely familiarized, the nutrition and health of rural households, mainly women and children will improve as well. The move from mainly public to private grafted fruit seedling supply and its close association with fruit growing clusters system will serve as a live learning corridor for others. The new fruit development approach is also expected to enhance the uptake of improved fruit production and marketing techniques; and the lessons can be easily scaled out and up to the nearby irrigated schemes with similar ecology and access to market.

Contributed by Gebremedhin Woldewahid, Yayneshet Tesfay, Haile Tilahun and Dawit Weldemariam

Vegetable and fruit markets in Ethiopia are not well developed. The actors involved are too many and the chain is lengthy, without significant value additions in each channel. The time or input required per unit of output exchanged and the cost involved in transferring the products from the producer to the final consumer is assumed to be very high. The technical and economic efficiency of marketing is very low.

The role of brokers is often raised; they are important given the dispersed and small-scale production (millions of farmers produce diverse and small quantity of products, at times farmers produce different varieties of the same crop) and the lack of information between producer and traders. Brokers assemble the products of many smallholders, before they reach the wholesaler; they use the information in the central market to fix the farm gate prices, never to the advantage of the producers. Wholesalers of vegetables and fruits fix the wholesale prices and the retailers adjust the prices based on the whole prices when they sell them to consumers. This is in a nutshell how markets of vegetables and fruits perform in Ethiopia.

Cooperative marketing is raised in the light of maximizing linkages between producers and traders, particularly the wholesalers, in minimizing the role of brokers. Cooperatives could play an important role in creating linkages between producers and wholesalers by bulking and sorting the produce of many hundreds, if not thousands. Cooperatives will increase the negotiating power of members.

Cooperative societies also play an important role in inputs supply like improved seeds/seedlings, fertilizers and chemicals, loan and market information provision to members. They could play an important role in promoting quality products, through provision of improved seeds and seedlings to their members, and following proper harvesting and post-harvest practices. There are good and bad examples of cooperative societies. The successful ones have storage facilities of their own, directly supply to wholesalers in the central market, offer fair prices to members (based on the quality of their products), have proper financial and property management procedures and generate adequate capital to ensure their growth. Bad ones lack many of the facilities which successful cooperatives have; storage facilities, working capital, and proper financial management, just to mention a few.

The Ocholo lante fruit cooperatives in SNNPRS is an example of a successful cooperative. The major gaps noted during our recent visit were its too small fruit store and shaky financial management. The latter could be an entry point for the LIVES project. The Omo lante cooperative was another successful cooperative where banana is stored before it is shipped to the central market.

It is important to note that cooperatives should be seen as business organizations. This is important to overcome the negative picture of the past that was associated with cooperative societies and to ensure their financial sustainability. While in the past cooperative societies were often seen as part of the state, cooperatives today should be organized by members with limited interference from the government. The government should support cooperatives to be independent business entities.

During a recent visit to SPNNR, we got the impression that some local government offices were going beyond just providing support to establish and strengthen cooperatives to actually controlling or supervising such cooperatives. It is vital that relationships between local offices and local cooperatives are defined and implemented in line with the 147/1998 proclamation and the corresponding regional proclamations which favour provision of support by offices, rather than control.

Cooperatives could be established as long as they have adequate (although we do not have a precise definition of what ‘adequate’ means) members, producers and suppliers of the similar products. Cooperative societies do not work everywhere and at all times. It is important to highlight the key role and importance of cooperatives and farmers should see the reason for establishing them. LIVES could play an important role in strengthening weak cooperatives and establishing new ones, by proving capacity building to selected (potential) members and experts, where they are appropriate.

The legal framework for establishing marketing cooperatives and the organization for establishing and strengthening thereof, the promotion office, are present.

Contributed by Fitsum Hagos (Ph.D), Economist at IWMI/LIVES 

A common misconception about watermelon is that it contains mainly water and sugar. In reality, it is a nutrient-dense fruit. Watermelon is an excellent source of antioxidants such as lycopene, and also contains vitamins A and C which help prevent cell damage, neutralize and remove free radicals and help fight off different kinds of cancers. Watermelon is also rich in potassium which helps maintain blood pressure to prevent diseases such as stroke, heart disease and also decreases the size of the kidney stones. It is frequently used for body detoxification as it contains a large amounts of water and it also helps in “cleaning” our kidneys. It is a fruit that is rich in an amino acid known as L-citrulline, which the body converts to L-arginine, an essential amino acid that helps relax blood vessels and improve circulation.

Watermelon was introduced in East Shoa Zone of Oromia region which is currently the only place where it is produced in Ethiopia. Though the exact date of its introduction in Ethiopia is unknown, farmers near Koka Lake in East Shoa explained that watermelon was introduced in their area in the 1950s by an Italian man who lived in Koka town. Today,  production is limited to the lake shore areas of Koka, especially when the volume of the lake shrinks. So far, irrigation to produce watermelon is not common. Since there is quite a good demand for watermelon by consumers – who buy it from supermarkets as well as from fruit and vegetable shops – farmers are starting to give more of their land to watermelons.

Quality and yield are the main factors influencing watermelon production in Ethiopia.  The quality of watermelons produced in Ethiopia tends to be low compared to elsewhere. According to tests at farm gate, road side markets and supermarkets, its average total soluble solids (TSS) content was found to be less than 6% Brix; the minimum TSS should not be lower than 9% Brix (world standard). The productivity of watermelon is generally low due to lack of awareness of producers about agronomic practices, time of harvest, and variety types.

So far, producers have not received extension services on watermelon production techniques and marketing from the government or NGOs in Ethiopia.

The common marketing system practiced is double transaction at farm gate (producers sell to to brokers and  brokers to traders). All producers sell through the process of “terega” which means buyers collect all watermelons at the same time. Mature and immature watermelons are all harvested together, resulting in low quality of the produce.

After grading the watermelons at farm gate, brokers sell the immature ones to local retailers for roadside markets. The better ones are sold to traders from the central market for big supermarkets and hotels.

Watermelon production in Ethiopia needs significant improvement in the types of varieties, production techniques and marketing. Intervention opportunities for LIVES could be in terms of introducing adaptable varieties that produce good fruits, providing technical and practical training on production techniques supported by demonstration and establishment and strengthening of sustainable input supply and marketing linkages.   

Written by Amenti Chali,  with contributions from Abule Ebro and Nigatu Alemayehu

To meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the world is going to have to ‘act local’. This story is an example of that. It’s about hardships faced by farmers in Sidama, one of Ethiopia’s leading coffee-producing zone, which lies south of the capital, Addis Ababa, and in the country’s Southern Nations, Nationalities and People region.

Farmers and farming systemsin the once extremely fertile midland regionhere are stressed by an increasing human population. A high proportion of children here are malnourished and the farming systems are still more subsistence- than market-oriented. With the rise of Ethiopian markets for cash crops and dairy products, farmers here are specializing in such crops as coffee and chat, which are replacing the region’s traditional food crops like ‘Enset’ (Enset vetricosum).

A modest, unlikely vehicle for farmers here to make ends meet is the pineapple, which was introduced about 50 years ago. Pineapples should do well here, where the warm climate and soils suit the plant. Although pineapples can fruit throughout the year, in Sidama, the peak harvests are from April to May and October to November.

Because pineapple farming is limited to just a few districts in Ethiopia and is grown by just a few producers, the pineapple value chain is underdeveloped in the country. Among constraints faced by pineapple farmers are lack of planting materials, little knowledge of optimal production practices and inadequate marketing system.

Read the full post on the CGIAR Development Dialogues blog

Banana is an important commercial commodity in Gamo Gofa zone of the Southern Nations and Nationalities People’s Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia. About 80% of the banana supplied to the Addis Ababa market is produced in Gamo Gofa through irrigation. Besides banana, the zone supplies apples and mangos to the national market. The lion’s share of irrigated banana is produced in the two low-lying districts of Arba Minch Zuria and Mirab Abaya in the zone.

The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project is working with potential stakeholders to enhance banana value chains in these districts. The conventional banana marketing system in Mirab Abaya has been identified as a major challenge affecting the banana value chains in the district.

This story is about the participatory processes of problem identification and introduction of potential interventions to improve banana marketing in Mirab Abaya. The current state of the banana value chains in the district was evaluated through innovation platforms, focus group discussions with producers, discussions with executive committee members of primary marketing cooperatives and through field observations.

There are about 120 local traders (77 in Arba Minch Zuria and 43 in Mirab Abaya) buying bananas from the smallholder producers and selling them all to traders in other parts of the country including in Addis Ababa. Although 14 fruit and vegetable marketing cooperatives (9 in Arba Minch Zuria and 5 in Mirab Abaya districts) were established in the past seven years, only three of them (Ocholo Lante and Genta Kenchama at Arba Minch Zuria and Omolante in Mirab Abaya) offer alternative market outlets for the smallholder producers.

Banana marketing  is better in peasant associations (PAs) where these three marketing cooperatives operate since calibrated weight balances are used enabling farmers to get much better farm gate prices. Despite the huge market potential of banana, in some PAs, smallholder producers choose to grow irrigated maize on their lands because they are not benefiting economically from farming bananas.

Cognizant of the challenges in banana marketing systems, in late 2013 the LIVES project started working with the zonal and district Offices of Marketing and Cooperatives to put together a team of experts to assess marketing problems in the main banana producing peasant associations of Mirab Abaya district. The following bottlenecks were identified:

• Farmers sell banana to local traders through weight estimation, not through actual weight (except in Omo Lante PA where the marketing cooperative is more active).
• Local traders buy 8-15 bunches as one quintal while a single bunch could weigh anywhere from 25-60 kgs. This way of marketing leaves farmers highly exploited by traders and brokers.
• Producers get credit from traders. However, as the smallholder farmers are not getting credit for routine and non-guaranteed household investments, they are forced to depend on the traders to whom they sell their bananas.
• Local price of bananas is set by local traders and their brokers. The brokers lower the price of the banana significantly and set the local price without proper negotiations with farmers.
• Local traders and brokers have monopolized banana marketing and outsiders are not allowed to buy bananas.
• Individual traders collect bananas from individual farmers’ fields. There are no common banana marketing centres where buyers and sellers meet and negotiate.
• Only the Omo Lante marketing cooperative buys bananas from producers. The other four do not as their committee members have basic experience and skills in business management and creating market linkages.

The aforementioned major bottlenecks were discussed by the fruits value chain actors and service providers at a LIVES-facilitated district-level platform meeting held in December 2013. A follow up discussion was held with a group of influential authorities including officials from the district administration, zonal and district offices of Marketing and Cooperatives, district Office of Agriculture and district Office of Revenue. The officials agreed to create awareness on the major market actors, the impacts of improper marketing system and the need to establish a new marketing intervention. The district Office of Marketing and Cooperatives and the Office of Agriculture led this new intervention.

Subsequently, continuous awareness creation meetings were held with producers, traders, brokers, marketing cooperative committee members and PA administrators. The impact of improper marketing systems on banana productivity, household income and overall value chain were communicated and shared among various actors and service providers. Capacity development (awareness creation, coaching/mentoring) interventions were conducted by experts from the Office of Marketing and Cooperatives and LIVES staff. This resulted in a decision by producers and traders to reach an agreement to use well-calibrated weight balances in each PA.

By and large, the following achievements have been realised:

• Use of calibrated weight balances for banana marketing has started in nine banana producing PAs in Mirab Abaya District. The PA administrators and the development agents are providing coaching on the proper implementation of banana marketing and the benefits of using well-calibrated weight balances at PA levels.
• Legal traders from outside the district are now allowed to buy banana from farmers, marketing cooperatives or local traders.
• Three marketing cooperatives (Ankober, Moleand Kolla and Mulato) have started buying bananas from the producers and selling them to traders. With the improved support from the district Office of Marketing and Cooperatives, they are also trying to create market linkages with wholesalers in Addis Ababa and elsewhere.
• Most PAs have already allocated marketing centres that are accessible by trucks. In some of these PAs, both marketing cooperatives and traders are buying bananas at these centres. This has enabled the producers to have better access to market information and also to negotiate prices.
• Starting in January 2014, the Office of Marketing and Cooperatives started recording the daily price and volume of bananas transported from the district. Accordingly, the recorded volume of banana sold from Mirab Abaya district was 850-950 quintals per day from January – May 2014 and 500-700 quintals per day from June – August 2014. The average price of banana was 4.50 ETB (0.22$) per kilogram in January 2014 and grew to 7 ETB (0.35$) per kilogram from June – August 2014. The latter is the largest farm gate price ever in the district.
• Based on the agreements during the platform discussions, every truck has to take an exit card from the Office of Marketing and Cooperatives to enhance fair trade.
• Since January 2014, the district office of revenue has started taxing every truck 700 ETB (35$). As there are anywhere from 10 to 25 trucks driving out of the district every day, the local government is receiving increased revenue due to this intervention.

Although there are encouraging achievements so far, there are also challenges ahead in sustaining these new arrangements. For the intervention to bring sustainable impact, more needs to be done on three major aspects:

• Strengthening the marketing cooperatives and sustaining their role by developing their capacity to improve business management and market linkages.
• Building the capacity of staff of the Office of Marketing and Cooperatives to provide proper and continuous support to marketing cooperatives and traders regarding market information, creating better market linkages and regulatory services.
• Putting in place credit service provision for smallholder producers to reduce their reliance on local traders. This will increase the confidence of the smallholders on the sustainability of the marketing cooperatives.

Written by Birhanu Biazin and Tesfaye Dubale with contributions from Yoseph Mekasha.

Participants of the Oromia regional irrigated fruits and vegetables commodity platform establishment meeting (photo credit: ILIRI\LIVES)

Oromia region is endowed with vast natural resources and a huge potential for irrigated agriculture. The region has about 23 billion cubic metres of surface water, 58 billion cubic metres of ground water and 1.7 million hectares of irrigable land. However, only about 30% of the irrigable land is utilised by about 45 % of households mostly using traditional farming practices on a small scale. Despite the region’s proximity to input importers, producers and potential domestic and export markets, residents are not fully benefiting from its resources and the area’s agricultural potential is underdeveloped.

As a result, the yield and quality of irrigated crops is far below potential. In addition, low return on investment due to limited markets access also poses challenges to the development and sustainability of the agricultural sector. Some of these problems result from poor linkage and collaboration among relevant stakeholders and a weak link between research, extension, policy and action/practice which results in inefficient practices along the agriculture value chains.

Therefore, establishment of strong linkage among stakeholders including value chain actors can help tackle some of the major bottlenecks to the development of irrigated crops in the region. One of the strategies of bringing together different actors to address agricultural production challenges and identify opportunities is by establishing a specialized regional innovation platform for different commodities. The platform can be used to link farmers, input suppliers, extension system, research institutes, output traders, processors, development partners and other governmental and non-governmental service providers. It can also serve as space for linking research to action/practice to better and jointly articulate existing problems and lay foundations for participatory diagnosis of problems, participatory action research and identifying possible solutions.

To encourage irrigated crops commodity development in the region, the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project and the Oromia Irrigation Development Authority (OIDA) with partners Greenlife Trading PLC, Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and other institutions, held a meeting, on 12 January 2015, to start the process of setting up an irrigated fruits and vegetables innovation platform for the Oromia region.

The initial meeting was conducted at a cost of 103,000 Ethiopian birr (ETB) [USD5000] which was shared among OIDA (ETB68000), LIVES (ETB34000) and Greenlife (ETB1000). Representatives of irrigation development authority from all zones of Oromia participated in the meeting, which was also attended by public service providers, input suppliers, Ethiopian horticultural agency, agricultural unions, farmers and government and non-government organizations.

In total, 44 participants of which two were women, attended the platform establishment meeting including representatives from OIDA, LIVES, Greenlife Trading and Oromia Agricultural Research Institute, who each made presentations on the status, major challenges and opportunities of the irrigated crops development in Oromia. A representative from SNV Netherlands Development Organisation-Ethiopia also shared experiences in managing multi-stakeholder commodity platforms in other countries in Africa.

Following the meeting, participants agreed on the need to establish a regional innovation platform for irrigated fruits and vegetables in order to speed up the development of the sub-sector. To ensure the effectiveness of the platform, a committee of 11 members was elected to lead the process of formalizing the innovation platform. Accordingly, representatives from OIDA and LIVES were elected to serve as chair and secretary to the leadership committee, respectively. In addition, a draft term of reference (ToR) on platform membership with the roles and responsibilities of members as well as that of the leadership committee was discussed, reviewed and ratified. Capacity development for leadership committee, is now planned and will be offered by the LIVES project and the Africa-RISING Program.

Read a related story on LIVES supports creation of new dairy platform in Oromia.

Written by Amenti Chali and Zewdie Adane.

Teklemariam Simie (right), a farmer in East Shoa zone practicing multifunctional agriculture and agritourism (photo credit:ILRI\Zewdie Adane).

The practice of agritourism and multifunctional agriculture may be less familiar to audiences in developing countries compared to developed ones.  Agritourism and multifunctional agriculture, as alternatives to conventional farming, emerged mainly in recent versions of the European Union’s common agricultural policy (CAP). In the era of rapid urbanization, rural and urban areas have become mutually reliant on each other and the concept of multifunctionality refers to agriculture, that is not only assessed in terms of its contribution to food and fibre production, but also for its wider range of social, environmental and economic benefits. In Dugda District of Oromia Region’s East Shoa Zone, Teklemariam Simie, a 79 year-old farmer is engaging in what may be considered an emerging version of multifunctional agriculture. He integrates livestock rearing with crop production as well as a cafeteria business in his small-scale farm of five hectares in total. Before embarking in the farming business, Teklemariam was a taxi driver in Addis Ababa for 11 years. However, the income he earned did not allow him to provide for the ten family members he was supporting at the time. Therefore he started the farming business in 1973 as an alternative means of livelihood. Teklemariam recounts that his childhood experience and knowledge in rural Bulga, Central Shoa, gave him the confidence to start farming as a business. In the 1980s his farm activity was hampered as a result of the unfavorable socialist policies regarding asset ownership and security. After some time, things became easier and he was able to focus on his farm activities full time. Teklemariam performs much of the farm activities himself although he is supported by his daughter and a handicapped son who lost one of his hands. He grows fruits such as papaya, mango, avocado, lemon, peach, guava, grape and custard apple; and he also grows cotton, silk worm and about 11 types of fodder. In addition, he cultivates basil, green beans, garlic, onion, soya bean and moringa. Cotton was the first crop he planted with the support of the Melkasa Agricultural Research Center. Teklemariam informed us that income from cotton sales was enough to buy two oxen which were then used to expand the farm.

Teklemariam Sime’s hive on a tree (Photo credit:ILRI\ Zewdie Adane)

The farmer grows various fodder seeds such as cowpea, lablab, pigeon pea, alfalfa, sesbania, leucaena, rhodes and elephant grasses, vetch, and bracharia. In 2003, his first year of fodder seed production, he earned about 8,400 Birr (USD 410) from the sale of 110 kg of cowpea. Motivated by this income, he expanded fodder seed multiplication and has invested more than 22,000 Birr in fodder seed production in recent years with the aim of becoming a fodder seed supplier in his village. He says he provides fodder seeds to fellow farmers, some of whom he met at a training on fodder production in Debre Zeit last year (2014). Teklemariam’s farm also serves as a demonstration and field-level practice teaching site for farmers allowing him to share his experiences. In the livestock sub-sector, Teklemariam is involved in poultry, dairy and apiculture production. He buys day-old chicks from Debre Zeit which he rears and sells after three months and has innovatively constructed a traditional incubator out of mud that is heated with wood fire to mimic the electrical incubator. He is currently expanding his poultry business and plans to buy at least 3,000 day-old chicks for commercial broiler production. In terms of apiculture, he plans to increase his 10 hives to 50 by the end of the year. Teklemariam values diversification over specialization in Ethiopia’s weather-dependent and risky farming context. The farm solely depends on manure and natural fertilizer from decomposed parts of trees and crops in the farm but he also conserves and efficiently uses water by among other methods, covering the roots of the trees and the surrounding soil with grasses and other materials to help the soil retain moisture. Teklemariam also started operating a small grocery adjacent to the farm to sell food and drinks to visitors and other customers. He performs all of these activities with only 4 years of formal education. He says that his main teacher was the problems he faced and his commitment to get out of poverty. An interesting aspect of his farm is how all activities are integrated and complement others in terms of inputs and outputs. For example, the apiculture business benefits from access to crops which provide nectar while at the same time, the bees pollinate the crops. On the other hand, the fodder crops provide feed for his dairy cows and manure from the livestock fertilizes crops and is used to produce biogas for cooking and lighting. The farm is not only a source of income for Teklemariam but is also a source of amenity value for his community. Young couples reportedly take shelter in the beautiful green farm for a day or so during weekends particularly during dry seasons when the surrounding vegetation is dry; making the farm one of the few remaining options for shelter from the sun in the area which lies in the East African rift valley. This service, is an opportunity for Teklemariam and can be commercialized as a result of increasing demand from urban dwellers. The farmer supplements his indigenous knowledge on the production and management of his activities with additional knowledge obtained through trainings. He has received trainings and advice from the office of agriculture on improved farming practices such as water harvesting techniques and row planting. He was, recently, the champion of a water harvesting campaign in his peasant association. Teklemariam has also been trained by the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project on improved poultry production and marketing which he says has enabled him to better plan his poultry expansion project. Some of the major challenges at the farm are water shortage, lack of someone to take over the farm as Teklemariam is aging and low awareness of opportunities offered by the farm such as its touristic potential. It’s also Teklemariam’s concern that he may not have a capable successor to expand the farm as he envisions it. Time seems to be against him. His daughter who is managing the cafeteria business and his son are the only family members around him. Empowering these two young people to manage their father’s five hectare land through coaching and mentoring is an option. LIVES and its partners could look into ways in which this exemplary farmer could be supported to make the farm more attractive to tourists, marketing and awareness campaigns and value-addition procedures for the farm’s produce such as eco-labeling of products from the farm could increase his income and make it a model of rural agritourism and multifunctional farming. Teklemariam Simie can be reached on his mobile phone at +251 91 957 6853. His farm is about 2.5 kilometres north of Meki town, on the way to Addis Ababa. GPS coordinates: N = 08` 11.668’ E = 038` 51.628’ Written by Zewdie Adane and Abule Ebro. 

The ‘Establishing and strengthening irrigation water users association (IWUAs) in Ethiopia’ training manual explains how to set up and manage IWUAs which were announced by the Ethiopian government. Features of IWUAs compared to other farmers’ organizations such as cooperatives are described and even though the training manual also addresses transfer of irrigation and drainage infrastructures that are part of the associations, its focus is on IWUAs and not irrigation practices directly.

The manual includes a potential training schedule with a detailed program of training sessions, and information on ‘training support’ and models of legal documents that can be used when establishing an irrigation water users association.

It was produced by Philippe Lempériere, Fitsum Hagos, Nicole Lefore, Amare Haileslassie and Simon Langan of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) as part of IMWI’s contribution to the implementation of the Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES).

Download the training manual.

Written by Yigzaw Dessalegn and Worku Teka

Banana bunch ready for harvest (Photo credit: ILRI\LIVES)

Amhara region has a diverse agro-ecology with altitudes ranging from 500 to 4620 metres, huge surface water resources and different soil types. This type of environment is conducive to growing both tropical and temperate fruit crops. However, according to a Central Statics Authority  (2014) report, fruit crops account for only 0.09% of the total cultivated land in the region. To tap into this unexploited potential, the Livestock and irrigation value chains for Ethiopian smallholders (LIVES) project planned some activities towards the fruit value chain development. Preparing a geographic information system (GIS)-supported suitability map for the production of major fruit crops and sharing the outcome with partners was the first project activity. The second step involved organizing a training for farmers and experts on fruit production and propagation practices. In addition, the project introduced and demonstrated improved varieties and recommended management practices of major fruit crops (apple, avocado, banana and mango) in North Gondar, South Wollo and West Gojjam zones.

Map of banana suitability in Amhara

Lay Armacheho District was one of the potential districts identified through the suitability map for banana production in North Gondar zone. The LIVES project introduced and demonstrated the performance of an improved banana variety (Dwarf Cavendish) with recommended management practices on the farms of 10 intervention households in Musie Bamb Kebele in the district. Each intervention household received 75 suckers from the project, which also regularly provided coaching on irrigation, soil nutrient management and sucker management. The banana suckers came from Metema District where banana was introduced a few years ago by the IPMS project. Woretaw Abuhaye is a farmer in one of the intervention households targeted for this trial. He planted the suckers on 5 December 2013 at a spacing of 3m x 3m, irrigated them at three-day interval during the dry season, and applied compost. The banana plant started flowering 10 months later on 27 September 2014 and was ready for harvest on five months from flowering on 24 February 2015. The number of banana fingers per bunch ranged from 160 to 200 and each banana fruit was sold at a price of ETB 2.00 (USD 0.097) in the local market. Woretaw is earning ETB 320-400/bunch sold. So far, he has harvested and sold over 20 banana bunches from the banana suckers initially planted. Secondary suckers also started setting fruit. Observing this economic benefit, Woretaw started expanding his banana orchard. Similarly, his neighbors started banana production by purchasing suckers from him at a price of ETB 15-20/sucker and they showed interest in working with him on a greater scale by renting land as well. ‘Having observed this development, the Office of Agriculture in Lay Armacheho District purchased about 6,000 banana suckers and introduced it in five peasant associations (PAs) in the district,’ says Assefa Zeleke, the district horticulture expert in Lay Armacheho. As a result of these and other efforts, banana production is expanding in the district and the all-rounded efforts by farmers and district Office of Agriculture are helping in scaling out/up of best technologies. The next LIVES project interventions in the district will be to introduce and demonstrate better banana varieties and train traders on banana ripening techniques.

Written by Gemeda Duguma and Amenti Chali

LIVES’ model farmers, Ijigu Tefera and his wife, removing weeds from grafted avocado seedlings (photo credit: ILRI\Amenti Chali).

The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project recently trained farmers in Jimma zone of Oromia region, on grafting and management of improved avocado seedlings.

Ijigu Tefera has grafted and raised more than 1000 improved avocado seedlings. He earned ETB 25,000 (USD 1,250) from the first batch of seedlings he sold.

The training, which was done in collaboration with the Jimma zone and Dedo, Kersa and Seka Chekorsa districts’ irrigation development authorities, targeted nine model farmers, who will then supply these seedlings to smallholder farmers in the region.

Jimma zone is one of the largest avocado producing areas in Oromia. Across Ethopia, more than half a million farmers produce 80,000 tons of avocados every year and many smallholder households in the country depend on avocado farming for their livelihoods.

But most of the avocado trees in the country are low yielding, take long to start fruiting (six-seven years) and grow to more than 20 metres in height making harvesting difficult and increasing post-harvest losses. Shortage of improved avocado seedlings is a major bottleneck to improving avocado production in the country.

Ijigu Tefera, one of the LIVES model farmers in Kersa District in Jimma, took part in the avocado grafting and management training sessions and study tours that also targeted development workers in the region. As part of the exercise, Ijigu and other model farmers were trained and given grafting equipment to graft avocado seedlings that will serve as future high-yielding mother trees for scion production. The improved avocado seedlings not only yield more but also take a shorter time to start bearing fruit (about three years) and are much shorter (five-six metres tall) for easier fruit harvesting.

Following this intervention, Ijigu has grafted and raised more than 1000 improved avocado seedlings. He earned ETB 25,000 (USD 1,250) from the first batch of seedlings (about 500) he sold. He has successfully transplanted 17 grafted seedlings for fruit and scion production and he also own 24 avocado trees grown from seedlings that LIVES provided previously. Currently, Ijigu is collecting avocado seeds to raise root stocks to produce both scion and grafted seedlings and he is also involved in avocado fruit production.

To help scale out the use of these seedlings in the Jimma, LIVES organized a field day for development workers, local administrations and more than 200 farmers from 16 kebeles who visited Ijigu’s farm to learn from his experience.

Written by Birhanu Biazin, Tesfaye Dubale, Yoseph Mekasha 

Gobeze Akoye a smallholder grafting mango plants in Arba Minch Zuria District (photo credit: ILRI/Birhanu Biazin).

Better harvesting techniques and post-harvest handling processes introduced by the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project have improved smallholder mango production in the Gamo Gofa zone of southern Ethiopia.

Mango is the second most important fruit crop in the country after banana. The Gamo Gofa zone in southern region is an important mango producing region in Ethiopia and a key supplier of the fruit to the national market. Mango farming is expanding rapidly in the region.

Traditionally, many farmers have relied on shaking mango trees, thrashing the branches and using scissors or hooks to cut the fruits as the main mango harvesting techniques. But these methods damage or bruise both the mature and immature mango fruits.

LIVES introduced mango harvesting tool to more than 50 smallholder  producers in the zone.  It is a metallic fruit picker with nylon box attached to a long wooden pole that enables to reach the fruits.  While the metallic fruit picker could be designed and produced by village workshops, the wooden poles are prepared by the smallholder mango producers themselves.

Smallholder farmers education on the importance of harvesting only mature and healthy mangoes based on fruit maturity indices, such as shape and color, is helping farmers get higher quality fruits that fetch better market prices.

As part of this initiative, the project has also trained, and is working with, extension workers and zonal and district agricultural officers in sensitizing the community to adopt better production techniques such as using improved mango varieties and optimum spacing of mango trees for optimal growth and easier harvesting.

As a long term strategy, LIVES is also leading a farmer-based grafted seedlings supply system to avail improved trees to farmers. The ‘top-working’ technique is being used to produce improved and shorter mango trees that produce uniformly sized fruits of superior quality and are easier (lessen chance of fruit damage) during harvest compared to cross-pollinated cultivars currently used by many farmers.

To ensure farmers increase their incomes and improve mango marketing systems within and outside the zone, the LIVES project has partnered with organizations such as marketing and cooperatives offices  at district and zonal levels, Gamogofa fruits and vegetables cooperatives union and  local traders.

With contributions from Kahsay Berhe

Tadele Gobeze at his fruit nursery in Mecha District, Amhara Region (photo credit: ILRI\Yigzaw Dessalegn).

By Yigzaw Dessalegn and Teshome Derso

Tadele Gobeze is a young entrepreneur who is engaged in the supply of fruit seedlings in Mecha District of the Amhara Region. In 2010, he established a fruit nursery with an initial capital of ETB 1,300 (USD 65). The nursery is established on 2000m²  of leased land.

Unlike field crop, fruit crops were recently introduced in the northwestern part of Ethiopia. But the demand for fruit crops has steadily grown due to urbanization. To help supply more fruits to meet this demand, the regional government of Amhara has established a number of public fruit nursery sites and has also encouraged private fruit seedling suppliers.

Tadele said he started the business by producing and retailing budded sweet oranges, non-grafted mango and avocado seedlings, coffee, eucalyptus and other trees. But the price of tree seedlings is lower compared to fruit crop seedlings. Similarly, the price of grafted fruit seedlings is about 3-6 times higher than the price of non-grafted fruit seedlings. Despite this fact, most private and public fruit nursery sites supply non-grafted fruit seedlings mainly because of a lack of skilled fruit grafting personnel and lack of mother trees of improved varieties for scions.

The Livestock and Irrigated Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project identified shortage in the supply of grafted fruit seedling as a major problem in fruit value chain development in Mecha and it moved to establish private seedling suppliers in collaboration with the Mecha District Office of Agriculture.

LIVES is currently supporting Tadele and other private seedling suppliers with practical training on fruit grafting techniques and mentoring services. The project provided 18 grafted seedlings of improved varieties of mango and avocado to establish mother trees in Tadele’s nursery site. He was also provided with 4000 scion twigs of improved mango and avocado varieties for immediate use and the project also introduced scion twig marketing practice to the community. A study tour of the different fruit propagation methods at Melkasa Research Centre and Picolo public fruit nursery site in the district was also recently organized by the project.

In 2014, Tadele  started supplying grafted mango and avocado seedlings besides budded sweet orange seedlings for farmers in his neighbourhood. He supplied 3,600 budded sweet orange, 1,000 grafted mango and 500 grafted avocado seedlings. He sold sweet orange for ETB 30/seedling, mango for ETB 40/seedling and avocado for ETB 35 /seedling, and generated ETB 160,100 (USD 7,600). This year he expanded his grafting activity, and supplied more than 12,000 grafted mango and avocado seedlings. In addition, he  supplies sweet orange, guava, gravelia, gesho, eucalyptus, and coffee seedlings, and expects to earn about ETB 300,000 – 400,000 (USD 15,000 – 16,000). Currently, his capital has reached ETB 300,000 (USD 15,000).

Tadele’s experience depicts the feasibility of grafted fruit seedling supply business to employ educated but jobless rural and urban youths. After observing Tadele’s success, fresh university graduates  got inspired, and started grafted fruit seedling supply. However, access to a reliable market, land, capital, scion and irrigation water remain a challenge. But despite these challenges Tadele`s vision is to expand and modernize his fruit seedling supply business.

By Mamusha Lemma and Gemeda Duguma

Ejigu Tefera managing his grafted avocado trees (photo credit: ILRI\Gemeda Duguma).

To promote value chain thinking and practice in Ethiopia, the Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project is using coaching and mentoring combined with training, demonstration and study tours to facilitate knowledge sharing and skills transfer among actors in the livestock and crop value chains.

The project trains and coaches producers (farmers) to transfer skills and knowledge to other producers in project Peasant Associations (PAs) as well as neighboring PAs within the intervention districts through a spontaneous dissemination process. The project and partners also use discussion circles, informal visits and field days to scale out best practices of intervention households.

Ejigu Tefera is a farmer in Omoticho PA of Kersa District, Jimma zone. He has participated in training sessions and study tours organized by LIVES on vegetable production, business development, motor pump repair and maintenance, grafting techniques and management of grafted seedlings.

Access to improved seeds and planting materials is a major constraint for fruit and vegetable producers in the district, but after Ejigu was trained in grafted avocado seedlings production and management, he planted eight demonstration avocado mother trees provided by LIVES. He also actively experiments with integrated nursery management practices in his farmland.

He produced about 750 grafted avocado seedlings and earned ETB 25,000 (USD 1,200) from selling more than 500 seedlings to relatives, the Kersa Office of Agriculture and other producers in his PA and beyond. Ejigu now coaches other farmers who have bought grafted avocado seedlings, and says there is high demand for grafted fruit tree seedlings, particularly for apple mango trees.

LIVES in collaboration with the Irrigation Development Office of Kersa District held a field day at Ejigu’s farm to promote and create demand for improved fruit and vegetable production practices following which the Kersa District Administration promoted his work in the presence of PA administrations in the district.

The district’s natural resources department of the Office of Agriculture later invited him to train producers and development agents in six farmer training centres, on avocado grafted seedling production and management. He later carried out follow up coaching of the participants. According to Ejigu, coaching after training helps farmers better apply their new knowledge and skills. Ejigu is now a key local resource person who trains and coaches producers and Development Agents (DAs) on seeds, seedling production and grafting techniques.

Saying that he has learnt much from the LIVES project, Ejigu adds that ‘agriculture today is not like in our fathers’ time,’.  He encourages farmers to learn new skills and diversify into fruit and vegetable farming. He has a plan to buy a high-power motor pump and to dig a shallow well to expand his irrigated fodder cultivation of desho, napier grass and alfalfa, for his planned dairy business.

Ejigu’s experience shows that innovative producers can benefit from experimenting with new crops and production practices and support extension services by training and coaching other producers to scale out best practices. The implication is that extension workers should expand their role as knowledge brokers by identifying and supporting innovative producers and facilitating farmer-to-farmer dissemination of improved agricultural practices.

External monitoring mission visiting LIVES intervention site in Bona district, SNNP Region ( Photo Credit: ILRI\ Yoseph Mekasha)

The Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project is in a position to support the scaling out of the interventions across the project areas. While not final, this was the immediate perception of the external evaluation team after a five-day visit—between 16 and 21 November 2015—to LIVES sites in Bona, Bensa and Arbegona districts of  Sidama zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia.

During a debriefing with the LIVES leadership team in Addis Ababa, the evaluators—Douglas Clements, LIVES External Monitor and Haregewoin Admassu, Gender Advisor for Global Affairs Canada (GAC)—expressed their satisfaction about progress since the first monitoring and evaluation mission. They found evidence of more ownership of the project by local partners. This increased ownership—they said—will contribute to the scaling out of the interventions within the project areas in the future.

During the last three years, the number of LIVES intervention peasant associations—the lowest tier of government—has increased. Presently LIVES has demonstration households for various commodities in 351 peasant associations, and the evaluators have recommended a consolidation of this number in the four regions.

Prior to the visit, the external evaluators held a meeting with the LIVES team in Addis Ababa to discuss approaches on planning, implementation and documentation. The revised performance monitoring framework (PMF) was also discussed. While the PMF indicators remain the same, the project targets have been more clearly defined. In this reporting period, LIVES will conduct a survey on some PMF targets at an intermediate outcome level. This will give the LIVES team and partners clear evidence to determine whether or not they are on track to meet their targets.

Discussion was held on the progress in relation to value chain development, knowledge management, capacity development and agribusiness interventions. This is key given the importance of capacity development and knowledge management in supporting role the adoption and scaling out of commodity value chain development interventions. For instance, coaching and mentoring cannot be provided to all producers. LIVES so far identified 4,291 market-oriented input and output producers who had the skills, an entrepreneurial mind-set and resources, and showcased them as demonstration households. They also develop learning materials to support self-learning of market-oriented producers and service providers. Moreover, a number of input and service providers have been established—such as feed suppliers, fodder seed producers, bee wax producers, and short-cycle fattening and finished cattle marketing groups.

Community-based sheep breeders’ cooperatives, commercial concentrate feed suppliers, vegetable seeds and agrochemical suppliers and improved grazing land were among project intervention sites visited. In addition, zonal and district partner staff were interviewed to gauge ownership and interest in the LIVES project activities.

The external evaluators are expected to finalize their report by the end of December. The report serves as an input for LIVES to make the necessary adjustments to reach its targets, and feedback to GAC.

By Dirk Hoekstra, Yigzaw Dessalegn, Worku Teka and Beamlak Tesfaye

Kifle seems a bright young boy, whose father started onion seed production through observations and exchange of information with the neighbouring Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project intervention farmers. We met him on our recent visit to Gondar Zuria, in Amhara.

He was aware of the profitability of the onion seed production and we asked him if he would want to become a farmer, given the money he could make. His response was ‘If I fail, I will become a farmer’.

For us who are involved in promoting market-oriented agriculture, his answer suggests that money alone is not sufficient to attract young people to agriculture, let alone to attract them to food self-sufficiency agriculture. So exploring a bit more, he clarified his position and suggested that agriculture was ‘too hard’ work. Again, Kifle’s answer did not come as a complete surprise, since increased access to information through television and radio, shows alternative ways of making a living, often with less manual ‘hard’ labour. In this context, it is interesting to observe that in the past decade, partly as a result of the disappearance of youth from the countryside, many older farmers have shown a great interest in growing fewer labour-intensive tree crops. Therefore, if we want to attract and keep youth in agriculture, we will somehow have to make market-oriented agriculture ‘sexier’.

Etatu’s parents recently introduced a ‘local’ drip- irrigation system for fruit trees. Her parents were trained on fruit trees by LIVES and took part in a study tour to learn about and create interest in fruits. Etatu now helps her parents in refilling perforated jerry cans, which drip water in the planting holes of the transplanted fruit tree seedlings. The avocado trees seem to grow nicely so far but have not yet started producing fruits. Since the avocado trees are new in the area, we asked her if she knows how the fruits are used, and whether she learned about fruit trees in school. She answered negatively and quickly hid behind her father trying to avoid answering more ‘nasty’ questions.

It is understandable that Etatu is still a bit shy in telling/knowing about new fruits because she has never seen or consumed them. Still, in order to attract her interest, she and other children need to be ‘fed’ with information about the possible uses and market possibilities of fruits. One option is to engage the local schools in spreading the news by showing them videos on fruits, taking them to fruits farms and agricultural fairs. LIVES is planning to organize a trip to nearby Gondar town to demonstrate uses of avocado in the fruit juice shops. Etatu will be one of the participants.

Involving youth in future agriculture will require a drastic change from the present extension system and mechanization. Making use of modern diagnostic technologies and information technology (IT)-based information services needs to be part of this strategy.