A tweet by ATA on April 17, 2022, reported that 1.9 M farmers will benefit and be able to increase the productivity of wheat from 30 to 45 quintals and maize from 40 to 60 quintals per hectare using cluster farming technique in the coming harvest season.
The country’s agro-ecological diversity, according to the ATA 2020/21 annual report, makes it suitable for growing over 100 types of crops, with 74.3 million hectares of arable land spread across 18 major agroecological zones at altitudes ranging from 148 meters to 4,620 meters above sea level.
According to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts’ forecasts, Ethiopia’s GDP from agriculture is expected to reach 715.92 ETB billion by the end of 2022.
To realize the full potential of this sector and boost the low yields of Ethiopian smallholder farmers by organizing them into crop-specific clusters, the Agricultural Commercialization Cluster (ACC) was launched in 2019 and set to span a period of five years until 2024. Half-way into the project’s lifespan, the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) of Ethiopia has recently announced its plan to harvest 2.6 million hectares of farmland during the 2014/15 E.C cropping season, an 18.2% increase from the previous year’s harvest of 2.2 million. This is mainly attributed to the utilization of cluster and market-led farming.
Furthermore, agriculture is the most important component and bedrock of Ethiopia’s economic development, accounting for 32.7 percent of GDP and 65.62 percent of employment, according to the ATA report. With 80 percent of Ethiopia’s 105 million people living in rural areas, the agriculture sector is dominated by smallholder farmers who farm on less than two hectares of land. Agriculture has grown rapidly in recent years, with GDP contribution increasing from 531.7 billion ETB in 2014/15 to 650.3 billion ETB in 2019/2020.
Agriculture’s share of GDP fell from 39 percent in 2014/15 to 32 percent in 2019/20, indicating a gradual structural shift in the economy toward industry and service sectors.
Source: Farmers Review Africa/ ATA
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