By Wim Goris, Agri-ProFocus (recently returned from a field trip to Ethiopia)

News from Ethiopia is currently dominated by headlines about severe hunger and drought. Fortunately, there also is some good news about surplus food production in Western Ethiopia.

According to Dutch newspapers, in Eastern Ethiopia currently 4,6 million people are in need of emergency aid and so are many more people in Somalia and Kenya. UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) aims to distribute 500,000 tons of food in the coming 6 months in the Horn of Africa. In addition to this, a Dutch fundraising campaign has raised more than € 24 million for emergency aid and disaster risk reduction. Agri-ProFocus members ICCO, Cordaid, Oxfam Novib and their partner organizations in Ethiopia are involved in raising money and mitigating the crisis.

At the same time, in Western Ethiopia food production is booming. Early September, the Agri-Hub Ethiopia team visited research centers, commercial farms and small producers in Jima, Asosa and Pawe. In these high-potential areas, especially Belesa, the 95 soy variety has been planted by both small producers and commercial farms. The nitrogen fixation capacity of rhizomes in soy roots is an asset for the farmers, though the need for laborious hand weeding is not. Ethiopian research aims to reduce the weed problem with varieties that have closed canopies and with intercropping systems.

In maize, organized farmers in Bure are involved in seed multiplication with Amhara Seed Enterprise. The farmers grouped their plots into a single, isolated block of 80 hectares. Seed multiplication requires additional work of farmers to get the right cross-pollination, but the price difference pays off. In interviews, both researchers and farmers expect good harvests of soy and maize this year.

The ambition of the Ethiopian research is to help boost production of soy and maize, both with smallholders and commercial farmers and substitute imports. Local sourcing of emergency food is to link the production surplus in Western Ethiopia with the food-insecure areas in the Horn of Africa.