Ethiopia's agricultural revolution: insights from the Minister's announcement

Girma Amente in a recent press conference revealed that Ethiopia has covered seven million hectares of land with seeds during the current rainy season

Girma stated that the country is working towards achieving its food sovereignty goals. He pointed out that the agricultural sector has shown strong performance over the past years, especially during the summer, spring, and irrigation farming seasons.

According to Girma, Ethiopia plans to sow seeds on a total of 21 million hectares of land this season. He said, “Some hectares of the land have already been covered with cereal seeds such as maize and the likes.”  He added that crops like teff, wheat, and barley are currently being sown in different areas based on the local ecological conditions.

Girma also stated that this year’s harvest is expected to be better due to the use of modern technologies and awareness-raising campaigns among farmers. Fertilizers, improved seeds, and other essential agricultural inputs have been delivered to farmers on time, which will help boost productivity and yields.

He emphasized that summer is the most important farming season in Ethiopia, as 70 percent of the country’s annual harvest is grown during this period. This year, 13 million hectares will be cultivated using cluster farming methods. This marks an increase compared to the same period last year. He stressed the importance of expanding cluster farming as it significantly increases productivity and helps improve farming practices.

In addition, the minister reported that 6 million hectares of land have been cultivated through mechanized farming, which is an increase of one million hectares compared to last year. He pointed out that the adoption of technology in agriculture is growing rapidly and is playing a key role in modernizing the sector.

Girma said a target has been set to harvest over 659 million quintals of crops by covering 21 million hectares of land in this meher season. “The major breakthrough is that farmers’ use of technology has been widely growing,” he added.