New breeding initiative aims to boost household food security and incomes in Ethiopia

The Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA) will invest over US$1 million to reach directly and indirectly more than 200,000 smallholder farmers in Ethiopia.

Initiatives to overcome farming constraints

The majority of Ethiopians rely on these key grain crops for their calorie and protein intake, but yields are currently low. This initiative will help to improve the food security situation through developing and deploying more than 10 improved crop varieties and promoting these among farmers. The initiative will also build capacity among researchers, extension agents, and public-private seed companies, and enhance the linkages between all the seed value chain players of target crops.

The initiative will be implemented through various EIAR research hubs/centers at Bako, Debre Zeit, Melkasa, Kulumsa and Pawe.

Dr. Adeferis Teklewolde, Crop Research director at EIAR says: "Ethiopian farmers face a number of constraints, such as drought, diseases and insect pests that, combined together, greatly lower their yields. This initiative will introduce crop varieties that can better withstand these constraints, thereby contributing to improved food security in Ethiopia."

Joe DeVries, director for AGRA's Programme for African Seed Systems (PASS) which oversees the programme, says: "AGRA is pleased to have this opportunity to work with the Ethiopian government to tackle a key bottleneck to farmers' productivity. Through this collaboration, 20 tons of breeder and foundation seeds - the basic seed multiplied and sold to farmers - will be availed to seed enterprises annually."

For more information, go to www.agra.org.