Keshi Fisseha Berhe lives in a remote rugged village of Derokai (Almeda) in Adwa district, Tigray region. He is an innovator in honeybee colony splitting. Keshi Fisseha’s innovation in beekeeping caught our interest when wet met him in a zonal workshop organized by LIVES in Axum. To visit Keshi Fisseha’s backyard apiary, we had to walk 1.2 hrs on foot along a steep slope hillside. It is within this hilly set up that one finds a surprising innovation in space saving and rapid honeybee colony splitting.

Keshi Fessiha gained basic beekeeping skills from his parents who kept traditional mud hives for honey production.  Back in 2004, he decided to shift to improved box hives when the local agricultural office pushed him to take a loan and buy three hives. Since then, the ever increasing price for improved box hives and the presence of a lucrative business for honeybee colonies have contributed to his ambition to invent a rapid and space saving colony splitting technique. Accordingly, he has successfully applied his innovation so he now has 60 improved box beehives inside his less than 900 m² backyard.

Against expectations, these colonies in box hives are used as mother hives for colony splitting. Keshi has forged partnerships with other farmers keen to share beehives for honey production, an arrangement that also helps him reduce the risks associated with vandalism. He firmly believes that honey harvests can be maximized by increasing the frequency rather than the intensity of harvest. That way, Keshi Fisseha and his shareholders are able to harvest an average of 60 kg of honey per hive within the three- month honey flow period.

In the improved hive boxes distributed by the agricultural extension system, frames are arranged vertically while Keshi Fisseha’s innovation is based on the horizontal expansion of the front sides of a hive. This enables him to insert up to 32 frames without violating the basic principles of spacing requirements. The frames are transferred to new empty hives when bees start to build combs in each frame. He has successfully split a strong colony into six new hives.

Although the concept of horizontal hive is not new, Keshi Fisseha’s version of including large number of frames placed inside a horizontal hive and positioning hives close to each other (not greater than 10 m) are unique innovations. Even at a larger scale, this also appears to supercede the conventional colony splitting blueprint that relies on wider spacing between the new and old mother hives, to avoid honey robbing.

The space saving and rapid colony splitting innovation Keshi Fisseha devised has helped him to specialize in colony marketing. His average annual income from the sale of beehive colonies is about 65,000 Birr, and he is the sole colony supplier for Adwa and its surroundings. Keshi also contributes to the district beekeeping platform members  that LIVES has set up by sharing his knowledge and skills.

Where there are shortages of honeybee colonies, innovations like this will benefit LIVES action and learning districts that are targeted for apiculture, as these are clustered into honey and colony marketing specializations. There is an obvious need to closely research the actual impacts of decreasing the distance between the new ‘weak’ and the old ‘strong’ hives before widely replicating this innovation to other areas.

Contributed by Yayneshet Tesfay (LIVES regional expert, Tigray) and Haile Tilahun (LIVES zonal coordinator, Central Tigray Zone)

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Poultry production is knowledge and skill intensive; it requires immediate responses when management appears suboptimal. The consequences of delayed actions include high morbidity and mortality of chicks, substantial economic losses, and total disinterest in poultry production.

Due to the delicacy of day old chicks, rural poultry in the Central Zone of Tigray is organized around the work of trained chick distributors. These distributors assume diverse roles as growers, marketers, trainers, and input suppliers. They help overcome an important knowledge and skill gaps that ordinary farmers face when they try to engage in market-oriented poultry production. Girum Asfiha and Nega Abraha are chick distributors operating in the Central Zone of Tigray. Both participated at the recent zonal workshop organized by the LIVES project.

They have created formal and informal links with day-old chick suppliers in Mekelle, Kombolcha and Debre Zeit. They buy the chicks for 29 Birr/chick  and sell them for 54 Birr/chick after feeding and managing them for 30-40 days. During this critical stage, they provide starter and grower feeds and apply scheduled vaccinations against major viral and bacterial outbreaks. The combination of improved management with timely vaccination has dramatically changed rural poultry intervention in Central Tigray. This once slow and often neglected activity has become an enterprise that contributes to the livelihoods of rural households.

The major customers of Girum and Nega are smallholder farmers in Laelai Maichew and Adwa. Sometimes they expand outside their local areas to meet market demands. In the past two and a half years, they have sold more than 100,000 chicks.

For Girum and Nega, getting hold of inputs is a major challenge. They have had to buy veterinary medicines from as far as Addis Ababa. Now days,  they are considering how they themselves could become intermediary traders by  linking smallholder poultry producers to large input suppliers.

As well as growing and selling chicks, Girum and Nega also train their clients in ration formulation and regular mass vaccination. They formulate and sell poultry rations from ingredients purchased locally. Maize, wheat bran and middling, cakes from noug, peanut and sesame, dried whole fish (captured from local rivers), alfalfa, limestone, bone and meat meals, premixes, and other antibiotics are their ingredients. For ingredients not available locally,  they get supplies from large feed ingredient suppliers in Mekelle and Addis Ababa (GASCO Trading PLC and Slaughterhouse). They charge 850 Birr for a pack of formulated chick food.

Abrehet Tareke is a woman farmer who lives near Axum. She was trained about chick management by Girum. After her training, she bought 100 Bovan Brown chicks and started her farm. She is also a member of the poultry platform that LIVES established in Laelai Maichew . After joining the platform discussion in July 2013, she expanded her poultry farm and planted alfa alfa as a feed source for her layer hens.

Abrehet’s hens started laying eggs in their 24th week and she now collect some 25 eggs a day, selling them each for 2.5 ETB in Axum city. She also sells fertile eggs to other farmers who incubate the eggs under natural setting. Now that she has new skills and knowledge, her immediate plan is to grow her flock size to 500 birds and build a truly market-oriented poultry farm. She plans to realize her vision by establishing a marketing group in her village with other interested farmers.

The recognition given to chick distributors and the training support has moved poultry interventions to a new phase and is contributing to the rapid adoption of improved poultry in rural areas. The distributors have assumed many roles along the poultry value chain and are filling in important knowledge and skill gaps faced by ordinary farmers. More efforts are needed to create links between distributors and private/public vaccine providers throughout the egg production life of layers. They also need to engage more youth, especially women, in market-oriented poultry production, which in turn attracts other value chain actors.

Contributed by Yayneshet Tesfay (LIVES regional expert, Tigray) and Haile Tilahun (LIVES zonal coordinator, Central Tigray Zone)

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This past week, LIVES has received and tested the long-awaited multipurpose feed choppers, shredders and grain grinders (all in one).  These machines, all petrol driven, mobile, hardy and good quality materials are produced in Brazil. They are light enough to transport to remote areas using donkeys or carts. The machines are not for donation but rather to strategically demonstrate their implications on feed use and utilization efficiency to initiate business, particularly for the unemployed youth, who can provide such services. These machines can chop wet and dry feed materials such as maize and sorghum stover, Napier grass, etc. and can grind grains to different sizes including for concentrate ration formulation using locally available materials.  Each LIVES zone will get one unit .

These machines are not new to Ethiopia, some other projects have also introduced them and thus issues of operation skills are not expected to be a problem.

The LIVES regional teams, together with the agribusiness expert of LIVES, are working on strategies on how to make livestock feed chopping as a business. The machines are women friendly and LIVES intends to follow up on this.

Humbo is one of the districts in SNNPR where LIVES is currently operating. It has an independent livestock marketing center well situated in the district town. The livestock market is large and is an important hub for traders and buyers from across the country. Although different types of livestock (fattened cattle, breeding cows, heifers, calves, sheep and goats) are marketed, the Humbo market is especially well-known for its fattened cattle. Animals from highland and lowland areas of Wolaita, Gamogofa, South Omo and Guji zones of Oromia region are brought to the market every Thursday.

The LIVES project recently visited Humbo to gain further insights into the dynamics of livestock commodity value chains.

Castrated and non-castrated animals are supplied to Humbo market. Fattening a castrated animal is a common traditional practice. Fattening of non-castrated animals has recently emerged associated with the development of export markets to the Middle East that demands it (preference for lean meat and other cultural reasons). The same market also prefers light skinned non-castrated animals. Castrates are oxen that move to fattening after the cultivation period is over. Although non-castrates are bulls they are used for fattening either after giving traction service or before.

The main marketing actors involved at Humbo include producers, traders, brokers/agents and consumers. Prices are set by visual judgment, not by weighing. Although producers are part of the system, their role in fixing the price, bargaining and decisions is nominal.  Occasionally producers are required to deliver their animals to brokers (to let them sell on their behalf) and they stay outside of the marketing center, mainly in the town. This practice denies producers opportunities to bargain and get fair prices for the animals they produced. Consequently, decisions are made through negotiations between brokers and traders or brokers and consumers (butchers, hotels etc.). This was raised as a serious marketing problem faced by the producers during the platform meetings organized by LIVES in Mirab Abaya and Arbaminch zuria districts.

Humbo buyers come from different areas and buy animals for different purposes. Fattened castrates are usually sold for domestic consumption, in which case, buyers included butchers from within Wolaita zone, Gamogofa zone, universities and hotels. The main buyers of non-castrates are traders in the export market. According to these traders, animals are transported to Adama where they rest for some days and are then trucked to Somaliland for export to the Middle East.

Most animals in the Humbo market are trekked from different areas. At the platform meeting, producers mentioned that they trek their animals for more than 60 km to the market. Animal transport after marketing takes different forms. Although there is no special truck for animal transport, most long-distance buyers transport animals using multi-purpose Isuzu cars. buyers from closer Wolaita zone and the surroundings trek the animals to their destinations.

The Humbo livestock market demonstrates that there are large numbers and different types of animals marketed in a single day. The livestock marketed are supplied from diverse production systems and locations (including LIVES operating districts of Gamogofa), and marketed animals are transported to various geographical areas as far as the Middle East. The market also creates opportunities for other businesses such as transporters.

However, trekking many animals over long distances often results in substantial loss of the carcass weight and quality.  Introducing animal transport facilities where there is access to roads, establishing resting points with feed and water, and establishing marketing centers at different locations could help minimize these losses.

To help producers obtain better prices for their products, marketing groups could be established to help members synchronize their production cycle to bulk sales, arrange transport collectively, and create direct linkages with export traders. 

Contributed by Yoseph Mekasha, Birhanu Biazen, Tesfaye Dubale and Dirk Hoekestra

Some 5 years ago Ato Berhanu Mulu – the Kalu District fruit and vegetable subject matter specialist, initiated an Association for the production and sale of tropical fruit seedlings – mango, avocado and citrus. Over the years, membership increased from 25 to 53 and most members are young man – only 2 female members.

After initial training on raising rootstock, grafting techniques and nursery management, each member started their own nursery.  Members also established mother trees of grafted varieties to ensure a sustainable future supply of scions – a goal which has been realized for the initial members of the association.

The association sells seedlings on behalf of its members to NGOs, investors, the Office of Agriculture (OoA) and private farmers.  Potential buyers are interested in the seedlings from the Association because the OoA issues letters certifying authenticity of the seedlings. Orders received by the Association are verified against seedling production records of individual members to determine who can contribute to the required amount of a specific species/variety. Once seedlings have been purchased, each member is paid by the association based on the number of seedlings delivered.

In conversation with LIVES staff, association members plan to explore some of the following options:

• Experience shows that fruit seedling production is an activity which can easily be practiced by women and hence the Association can actively seek the involvement of (young) women.
• Many of the members planted grafted seedlings on their own land and harvesting of improved fruits has already started. The Association may facilitate the sale of improved fruits to “niche customers” in the regional and national market.
• Mobile phone payment technologies (M-Birr) could be tested to transfer funds from the Association to individual members for seedlings and fruits sold. It was noted that most members use mobile phones and have accounts with ACSI, one of the MFI organizations piloting the M-Birr system

Contributed by Dirk Hoekstra, Berhanu Mulu and Mesfin Tefera

Until the early 1980s, maize, cotton and sweet potato were important crops produced by farmers in Arba Minch Zuria and Mirab Abaya districts of the Gamo Gofa zone in SNNPR. During that period, the then Arba Minch state farm had 62 ha of land covered by dwarf Cavendish banana. Experts in the office of agriculture at the then Gamo Gofa Province made efforts to introduce banana to the Lante producers’ cooperative, but it failed as the cooperative administrators at that time did not perceive banana as an important cash crop.

In 1984, a few experts restarted a dialogue to transform the mainly cereal-based subsistence smallholder agriculture to a more market-oriented system by introducing irrigated banana. After repeated discussions with cooperative leaders and extension staff, banana was introduced on 4.2 ha of the cooperatives land. Planting materials came from the state farm. However, the cooperative leaders and members were not fully convinced of banana’s potential to improve their livelihoods; this was further fueled by the belief that banana impacts biological fertility if consumed. Continuous awareness creation about the benefits of banana changed the perception of cooperative members. Once the first introduction was made to Lante cooperative, scaling out to individual plots in Lante and Chano Mille Peasant Associations was carried out.  Prisoners from Arba Minch helped transport and transplant suckers from the state farm to the farmer plots. The extension staff and administrators continuously monitored the pilot farmers.

The agro-ecology of Arba Minch was good for Cavendish banana; most of the suckers at the pilot farms bore bunches easily and gave good yields some 10 months after planting. The first harvest was transported and marketed in Addis Ababa. The farm gate price for a kilo of banana was 0.20 ETB. Seeing this, the farmers understood the economic benefit of engaging in irrigated banana production. About five years later, most farm lands that had easy access to irrigation in Arba Minch were covered by dwarf Cavendish.

The introduction of banana in Arba Minch has also contributed to the development of new irrigation schemes in the area. A number of traditional and modern irrigation schemes were established for banana cultivation.

Irrigated banana (Dwarf, Medium height and Giant Cavendish) now covers more than 11,000 ha of land in Arba Minch Zuria and Mirab Abaya districts. Farmers use rainfall and irrigation to produce banana throughout the year. It is estimated that banana from Arba Minch has more than 80% of the market share in Ethiopia and 40% of the market share in Addis Ababa. Consumers in Addis Ababa, Hawassa, Adama, Shashemene, Bahir Dar and other major towns prefer bananas from Arba Minch for its good taste. Arba Minch is also an important source of banana suckers for many other parts of the country.

Different governmental and non-governmental organizations from Tigray, Amhara and Oromia regions buy banana suckers to start banana plantations in their respective regions. About seven years ago, the IPMS project introduced dwarf Cavendish to Metema area in Northwestern Ethiopia by transporting the suckers from Arba Minch. Currently, several smallholder farmers in Metema have become banana producers.

Although the living standard of the local value chain actors (banana producers, brokers, traders, retailers) and service providers (cooperatives, transporters) has substantially improved in recent years, they still face many challenges. For instance, yield per unit area of land is declining due to improper agronomic techniques such as overstocking, lack of soil amendments, improper irrigation techniques and mono-cropping. Previous studies in the area indicate that declining soil fertility has caused yield loss of 30-60%. Pests (fruit flies) and diseases (Banana xanthomonas wilt and Fusarium oxysporum) are potential challenges for banana production although they are not yet severe. Recently, a new variant of the soil-borne banana fungus (F. oxisporumf. sp. cubense) that rots and kills the Cavendish cultivars has been reported in Mozambique and Jordan. If this disease enters the country, it has a devastating effect and could cause up to 100% losses.

The current marketing system tends to benefit traders more than producers. Most of existing banana cooperatives are not strong enough to compete with the traders and hence do not benefit their members as much as expected. Furthermore, existing traditional production, harvesting and post-harvest techniques do not attract the foreign market.

To transform the existing production and marketing system, a new move is required. The first is proper implementation of improved production technologies to double actual yield per unit area and improve the quality of the products. The second is capacitating proper functioning of fruit and vegetables marketing cooperatives by building up the skills of members and organizing awareness creation among producers on the importance of joining cooperatives and linking to markets and improved market information.

The LIVES project is collaborating with the regional bureau of agriculture and regional agricultural research institute to upgrade the banana value chain in Arba Minch through capacity development, demonstration of improved technologies, knowledge management and market linkages.

Contributed by Tesfaye Dubale, Kahsay Berhe, Birhanu Biazin and Yoseph Mekasha

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For most smallholder farmers in Amhara region, chicken production plays a significant role as a source of supplementary income and quality diet for household consumption. The business is suitable for smallholder farmers as it requires little initial capital, small space, and  it is manageable by women and children.

Most (> 99%) of chicken products (egg and meat) in the region come from traditional village production system, which mainly use indigenous chicken ecotypes, and operate with minimal input costs. This traditional village production system, despite its significant share, is challenged by a number of factors: lower production and productivity (small number of eggs per head and poor growth rate), high chick mortality, and a lack of market focus. These mean that the supply of chicken meat and eggs in the region is far below the demand of the fast-growing human population. So, the current price of an egg and a live chicken in Bahair Dar town is about 2.50 and 150 ETB respectively, which is unaffordable to most poor dwellers.

Government organizations and NGOs in the region have attempted to improve the production and productivity of village chicken production by introducing improved exotic breeds with feeding, health care and housing packages. However, most of these efforts were unsuccessful, mainly due to lower adaptability of exotic animals to the traditional management conditions. Parallel to the village chicken improvement program, urban and peri-urban chicken business development is promoted in the region. A few entrepreneurs in and around Bahir Dar town are engaged in pullet production (as an input supplier to village chicken production), broiler production or egg production. This urban and peri-urban chicken production has its own challenges as well.

The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains (LIVES) project recently conducted a rapid assessment on the status of chicken production in West Gojjam Zone, one of the project intervention sites. The assessment identified some major challenges such as lack of quality poultry rations, serious skill and knowledge gaps of producers to run chicken farm as a business, financial limitations, shortages in the supply of day-old chicks and veterinary drugs, inadequate health service provision and poor market linkages. Huge differences among producers in terms of knowledge and skills, financial capacity and access to market information were also identified.

To mitigate these production and marketing challenges, the project facilitated the creation of learning forums/platforms. The first activity was to organize innovation platform meetings, which help producers, processors, traders and experts share their experiences, views, challenges, and success or failure stories.

These innovation platform meetings laid a foundation for the creation of a the ‘Cherechera chicken producers’ association’. The association was established as most of the challenges identified proved to be beyond the capacity of individual value chain actors. The association has 19 members, of which 11 are women; it has five task forces where each is mandated to tackle specific challenges and find solutions on: 1) feed and nutrition, 2) capacity development, 3) marketing, 4) health management and 5) legal advice.

Based on the identified knowledge and skill gaps, LIVES and its stakeholders carried out demand-driven training on health management, breed selection, housing, meat processing, feed formulation and feeding for the value chain actors in the association.

Association members are already benefiting from sharing experiences among themselves on chick management, reducing mortality rate from 80% to 5%.  For eggs, the members have learned that the key to getting yellow yokes, which is most preferred by consumers, is feeding green leaves. They are tackling supply problems by organizing themselves to carry out bulk purchase of feeds and day-old chicks from Debrezeit and Hawassa.

The association has set up a traditional saving and credit system ‘Iqqub’ to purchase required inputs. Each member contributes 1,000 ETB/week. The association has also realized the benefits of collective marketing, contractual marketing arrangements at sustained supply of products and market linkage promotion and thus is working towards building the linkages with potential buyers.

So far, association members are very much encouraged by the capacity development support LIVES gives and they plan to establish a feed processing plant and hatcheries at Bahir Dar town to serve their own needs and supply quality feed and day-old chicks at affordable prices to others.

Results show that value chain actors can innovatively solve their own challenges through innovating, learning from one another and demand-driven capacity development.

 Contributed by LIVES Team – Amhara region        

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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

Livestock is one of the fastest growing agricultural sub-sectors in developing countries and this growth is driven by rapidly increasing demand for livestock products, mainly due to population growth, urbanization and increasing incomes. The increase in livestock products in turn requires an increase in different inputs for livestock production, mainly feed. Feed is the major input cost incurred in livestock production and is one of the focus areas in LIVES intervention districts.

Although agro-industrial byproducts in Meki town (Dugda district) is mainly run by men, Hiwot Feleke, a female high school graduate, was able to join the business 6 years ago after obtaining a retailer license. She has successfully run the business so far and her shop is located at a prime location and can store up to 40 quintals of feed.

Hiwot buys wheat bran and linseed cake from a wholesaler who brings supplies from wheat mill factories found in the southern region (Warable, Dilla and Awassa) and linseed cake from Adama oil mills. She buys 20 to 25 quintals of wheat bran per week costing 240 to 310 ETB/quintal and 1 or 2 quintals of linseed cake costing 600 to 800 ETB/quintal. The wholesaler transports the feeds to her shop by truck and she pays either with cash or on credit.  The profit margin from each quintal is 10 to 20 ETB. Her sales are higher in the dry season (also at a higher price) than in the wet season when there is feed and forage available in the fields.

Her customers include donkey and horse cart owners, farmers who own oxen for traction in the dry seasons (January to July), as well as dairy farmers and cattle fatteners in Meki town. She explains that urban dwellers buy more linseed cake to fatten cattle than rural farmers do. In addition to selling feed, Hiwot keeps some cattle and spends part of her profit to feed them.

Engdashet Hailu, is a feed retailer (and sometimes a wholesaler who distributes to small scale retailers) in Alemtena town, Bora district. He has a diploma in plant sciences and started his business recently. In addition to the feed sold by Hiwot, he sells cotton seed cake. Upon request, he buys his oilseed cakes (linseed and cotton seed) directly from Adama oil mills and his wheat bran from factories. He has rented a house to use as a store and shop. The house can store as many as 100 quintals.

Hiwot and Engedashet share many experiences and challenges. The mode of payment that they use with their suppliers and their profit margin is similar; the needs of their rural and urban customers is similar; the seasonal variation in price affects them both – their sales increase in the dry season due to feed demands of sand extractors and vegetable producers who use donkey carts as a means of transportation. They face similar challenges as well: Factories sometimes sell them poor quality wheat bran, they pay high taxes, they compete with retailers who do not pay taxes. Regardless, both retailers are determined to expand their businesses in the future.

Berhanu Chenka is one of the four businessmen involved in wheat straw marketing in Meki. Wheat straw is the only crop residue that is sold throughout the year at Meki market. Farmers sell sacks of straw to merchants at the farm gate and the merchants transport the straw (each sack weighing 5 to 7 kg) using rented donkey carts to the marke where they sell to traders like Berhanu.

Berhanu’s customers include horse and donkey owners, people wanting to conserve the straw for use during feed scarcity and those who keep small number of animals. His profit margin is 2 ETB/sack. Berhanu buys 300 sacks of wheat straw per month by paying cash and sells them all within the same month. The longer the sacks stay on his hand, the lower his profit margin. The price of straw rises from August to October as the roads are muddy and difficult to traverse with a donkey, leading to limited supply. Berhanu explained that the profit he gets is not high, but enough for daily survival. Getting a suitable market place for the business is a critical constraint to Berhanu. He sells his straw adjacent to cloth traders where the pieces of the straw are taken by wind  and may soil the clothes.

In Alemtena, Bora district, farmers bring sacks of straw to the town between May and August when livestock feed is scarce. They go to a specific place early in the morning between 6 and 8 am. Farmers sell directly to consumers unlike in Meki.

Supported by his knowledge of plant sciences and some practical experiences, Engedshet advices his customers how to use the feed they buy, but neither Hiwot nor Berhanu do this. None of them have much knowledge on livestock feed management, storage, quality control, safe sale and business planning. They do not know how to perform feed quality checks, good packing, proper labeling and feed mixing.

They all three have mobile phones to obtain price information and foster market linkages. Information resources on new business technologies/opportunities are rare and informal. Engedashet and Hiwot explain that there are many youth, like them, who are getting into their business nowadays.

The LIVES project and its partners need to undertake further assessment to understand the system of livestock feed marketing from wider perspective and pave the way for alternative solutions to problems affecting the business.

As many unemployed youth without adequate knowledge in business planning and livestock feed management are joining the business, there is a strong need to train them in business planning, management of livestock feed, and sustaining ethical business. It is also necessary to train and demonstrate techniques of formulating mixed ration for different classes of livestock so that they can diversify their business and help customers to feed their animals better.

Given necessary support, the business men/women can assist in transferring feeding technologies as they have close contacts with farmers. It is also quite common in the agricultural extension system to focus on production than on value chain governance although the latter is crucial for market oriented livestock production.

Thus, LIVES and its partners need to work closely with farmers and other actors in the business on value chain concepts and the involvement of interested farmers in the business at peasant association levels. Assessing the feasibility of introducing bulk purchasing of feed for farmers and small scale feed mixing operation need due consideration. Some of the constraints raised in both towns can be solved through creating awareness and discussions among the relevant actors where LIVES and partners can play a vital role.

Contributed by Abule Ebro, Nigatu Alemayehu, Adisu Abera and Gemeda Dhuguma

South Wollo is blessed with an abundance of agro- industrial by-products: Wheat bran from flour factories, oil cake from small scale oil processing factories, as well as brewers waste from a beer brewery. Traders who process their pulses in small grinding mills take away flour as well as husks of pulses as well as ground pulse bran.

Dairy farmers, especially urban ones in Dessie and Kombolcha, already know about the availability of these ingredients in their vicinity and purchase them from small shops or directly from the source.

The effect of this increased demand can be seen in the fact that these products moved from “waste” to “economic” products, which is reflected in the price development over the past 10 years. Farmers also try to formulate concentrate rations by adding salt to the ingredients mentioned above. Use of concentrate is much less known for fattening of small ruminants. Research results indicate that growing periods to reach live animal export weights (25-30 kg) may be shortened considerably with the use of supplementary feeding, especially for the crosses between local highland breeds and the Awassi breed.

LIVES can optimize the use of these locally available agro-industrial by-products by assisting both dairy farmers and producers/fatteners of small ruminants in formulating appropriate rations, taking account of additional interventions aimed at improving the production of natural and planted fodder species and crop residues.

Once ratios are developed, private entrepreneurs and cooperatives may develop a business venture of small scale production of feed mixes.

Contributed by Dirk Hoekstra and Mesfin Tefera.

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 

On 1 and 2 March, a lively agribusiness finance fair was held in Hawassa town. The event was organized by Agri-ProFocus/Agri-Hub Ethiopia and other partners including Hawassa University, the regional government, banks, insurance, microfinance institutions and private organizations. The fair included panel discussions, a market place and field visit.

A presentation on the LIVES project plans and experiences with “Agricultural Input Financing: Challenges and Constraints so far” was made by LIVES regional coordinator Yoseph Mekasha. LIVES agri-business expert, Dereje Legesse, was interviewed about the commonalities of LIVES and Agri-pro focus with regard to agri-business financing and related interventions (see interview). At the marketplace, posters and brochures from LIVES and various documentation from the earlier IPMS project were displayed and distributed. Detailed documentation of the event can be found on the Agri-hub Ethiopia web page.

Contributed by Dereje Legesse, Agri-business expert 

(Picture Credit: UNECA http://www1.uneca.org/uncc/AfricaHall.aspx )

The LIVES project recently joined hands with national and international partners to help reinforce university based capacities on agricultural value chain development and gender mainstreaming.

Berhanu Gebremedhin and Ephrem Tessema recently contributed to a workshop organized by the Netherlands NUFFIC program for participants from universities in Jimma, Hawassa, Ambo, Haramaya, Semara, Bahir Dar, Wolayita Sodo and Adama. The LIVES team shared practical experiences on value chain development and gender mainstreaming.

Universities in Ethiopia need technical support from international research and development organization to help integrate value chain development and mainstream gender into their curricula. For the LIVES project, they also have important roles as potential centers to promote and scale up research lessons.

Contributed by Ephrem Tesema

Ato Gadissa’s started his business in 1990 with 20 cross bred dairy cows on a 17.5 hectare landholding in Ambo town. His business progressed and he now has two big farms in Ambo and Bako Tibe district. He also has shares in Anno Agro-industry company, owns a Farmer Service Center (FSC) and a mega feed processing plant.  Near his  farm in Ambo , he has a shop where he sells his produce, provides advisory services to producers, motivates agricultural extension service providers and represents private integrated farms in various platforms in Oromia and Ethiopia. 

He was born and raised in Dengoro wereda of West Welega zone, Oromia region. After his primary and secondary school education, he got diplomas in language and general agriculture from Addis Ababa University and Ambo college of Agriculture. He studied abroad and got an advanced diploma in Agriculture from the USA. He worked as language and agriculture extension agent for more than 23 years. Through his years, he traveled the world and met influential agricultural business entrepreneurs and decision makers.

Now a fully-fledged agriculture entrepreneur, he owns about 100 crossbred cows that produce 15 liters of milk on average. Alongside the dairying, he cultivates maize, wheat, tef and chickpea; in the dry season he irrigates his land from th Huluka river and cultivates maize. Beekeeping is an integral part of his Ambo farm. He owns close to 100 modern beehives and each produces about 80 kilograms of high quality honey each year. The honey is sold to wholesalers from Addis.

 The 50 hectare Dono farm in BakoTibe district is on land that was swampy but is now fertile and is suited to mechanized farming to produce maize, sorghum and vegetables by irrigation. Thousands of mango trees, five different varieties, are planted and harvested every year from this farm.

Gadissa says that being located close to research centers enabled him to continuously learn and make his own research on various crops. The challenges for farmers of getting improved crop seeds led him to produce and sell improved seeds in his Ambo and Dono farms.

On top of his full time work on his two farms, he is shareholder in a large scale farm, Anno Agro-Industry. This farm, lying on 500 ha of land in east welega zone, produces crops and livestock. The land was degraded when they started but has now been rehabilitated through the application of soil and water conservation techniques. Anno Agro-industry organizes experience sharing events for stakeholders in the area where insights and lessons on crops, livestock and the environment are shared, discussed and demonstrated. To address the animal feed challenges, Gadissa also established a mega animal feed processing plant in Ambo.

According to Gaddisa, farmers are willing to pay for better options in agricultural extension services and input supply. He thus established a Farm Service Center (FSC) in 2013. For a fee, the center provides production technologies, inputs, pesticides, equipment, advisory service and market information and linkages. Qualified experts in veterinary, extension, marketing and accounting are full time employees in the center. Gadissa’s dream is to see his farming business progressing and being a family asset – his elder son Biftu has expertise in computer science, farm machinery and accounting and works in the business.

Overall, he employs about 250 people, more than half of them women.

Gadissa’s farming business serves as an innovative model to scale up modern production practices to help smallholders take the leap from subsistence to commercial production. His focus on value addition for increased market demand and maximized profit offer lessons to be shared by others. His rich experience as a school teacher, farmer, entrepreneur and extensionist is an inspiration for experts, farmers and decision makers.

Contributed by Addisu Abera, Abule Ebro,  Moti Jaleta and Nigatu Alemayehu

A related story on Gadissa Gobena

At the beginning of this month, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and Development (DFATD) gender experts visited East Shoa zone, one of the LIVES intervention sites. They wanted to look into the gender mainstreaming efforts and related activities done since the project started.

The team visited different sites and interacted with development agents, the gender focal person of the zone and male and female farmers engaged in fruit grafting and large ruminant fattening. The team also visited the Malima Beri vegetable market where 75 women are organized into a marketing group by the small and micro enterprise office and district cooperative office of Dugda district. The group sells tomatoes and onions alongside the highway. Currently LIVES is looking at options to construct proper vegetable sheds for this marketing group.

Contributed by Ephrem Tesema

This blog post was originally published on the Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog

In Ethiopia, access to internet is limited in most areas outside of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city.  So when you see a number of agricultural extension workers in the sprawling mountains and fields of rural Ethiopia holding e-readers, they may seem slightly out of place.

The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project, in an effort to both build the capacity of extension workers and connect them with relevant, easily accessible information has called upon piloting of ICTs, in this case e-readers, whereby easier access to information and knowledge can be accessed.

Read more  on the agriculture and ecosystems blog 

Participants in a market-oriented agriculture extension training workshop; March 24-27,2014, Adama.

The predominantly public sector extension service in Ethiopia has gone through tremendous expansion over the past few years. However their approach of service delivery remains more or less production and technology oriented with little attention to marketing.

The Ethiopian government’s current focus on commercial transformation of subsistence agriculture calls for change in approach, methods and work culture of the extension officers. There is a need to shift services that aim at production for subsistence to those that aim at services to market oriented production. Determined to fill in this gap, the Ministry of Agriculture is focusing on building the knowledge and capacities of its public sector staff in agriculture value chain approaches and market oriented agriculture. The LIVES project is partnering in these efforts and organized some training on these new approaches. The first such training was given at the Federal level this past month.

Trainees comprised experts, team leaders and researchers from the various directorates of the ministry of agriculture and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR). The workshops were held 17-20th of March on value chain development approaches and 24-27th on market oriented agriculture extension in Adama town, Oromia.

Etelaem Tesfaye, a poultry researcher from Debre Zeit research center of EIAR, explained how the training led her to change her perceptions on how best she could look at her research work not only from productivity perspectives but also from a market orientation, better efficiency and profitability. Similarly, Bula Agegnehu of National Artificial Insemination Center (NAIC) says the trends are changing with the increasing demand for improved breeding and semen supply, which makes such training workshops relevant and timely. He explains further how the campaigns on estrous synchronization and mass insemination all over the country have driven NAIC to increase its supply of semen and to revisit its production and distribution systems in order to facilitate market oriented livestock production, particularly dairy.

Market oriented extension services and value chain approaches were new concepts for most of the trainees. ‘These approaches guide you to assimilate your scientific knowledge with the existing context and increase the efficiency of your work’ says Tamerat Seyoum, a veterinarian at Holeta research center of EIAR. The trainees however worry about the applicability and effectiveness of these approaches at the grassroots unless a continuous follow up and coaching is put in place. They stressed on the need for decision makers to be aware and knowledgeable of these approaches so that they could be leading the adoption and implementation processes.

The LIVES project will organize subsequent training workshops at the four project regions in an effort to bring these approaches closer to the grassroots.

Related publications

• New release from IPMS: A guide to market-oriented extension services
• Market-oriented agricultural extension important for Ethiopia – ILRI tells BBC

Dirk enjoying ‘irgo‘ in rural Ethiopia.

Having traveled around the Ethiopian highlands for a while and trying to understand the dairy value chain, I often wonder about the uniqueness of the Ethiopian farmers and how we are trying to assist them.

During the IPMS project and now the LIVES project, we tried to highlight the difference between the liquid milk and local butter value chains, each having a different set of value chain actors and processes. So far so good.

But observing and discussing many dairy operations, I believe there are still some additional opportunities we can explore. Most dairy processing activities in Ethiopia focus on fresh milk, sold in raw, boiled or pasteurized forms to consumers. The unsold fresh milk is usually processed into fresh butter. Any remaining skimmed milk is either sold to consumers or is heated to get a soft cheese known as “ayeb”.

In a recent visit to a milk bar in Mekelle town, I found the unsold fresh full milk being naturally fermented into “irgo” (yoghurt). Part of the fermented “irgo” was also creamed off to churn it into local lactic butter – the system used traditionally in the rural areas.

So what is the lesson I draw from this? If we could increase demand for dairy products obtained from soured milk, then processors might buy sour in addition to fresh milk from producers. This strategy could increase the volume of milk (fresh or sour) that enters the small scale dairy processing business. Based on demand for dairy products, differential prices may be paid for fresh and sour milk.

However, we need to be aware of any human health issue from the processing of raw soured dairy products. Are we not passing on tuberculosis and other diseases? The solution may be to boil the fresh milk at farm level before allowing it to sour. The problem is that we also then kill the lactic acid bacteria which stimulate the natural fermentation process. The answer could be to add pasteurized yogurt to the boiled milk – to allow it to ferment. I am not sure though if you can churn lactic butter from such artificially fermented yoghurt. Maybe dairy experts could shed some light to this.

Early in April, Peter Hooper joined the LIVES project for the coming 12 months to support its livestock interventions.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity to work at ILRI, an organization that I have admired before. Both my wife Elaine and I look forward to our life in Ethiopia” He says.

Peter has a degree in veterinary science and a number of postgraduate degrees including a PhD (majoring in pathology). He earlier worked as a field and administrative veterinarian working mostly with cattle and horses in the northern tropical areas of Australia. He recounted the exciting times he spent working to eradicate contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, brucellosis and tuberculosis, and the measures required following the identification of bluetongue virus.

Afterwards, Peter served CSIRO, Australia’s premier research organization, as a research scientist. His research work included identification of a number of new or emerging diseases, notably a new rabies virus not then known in Australia, the new Nipah and Hendra viruses, and a viral cause of epidemic blindness in kangaroos. He has also worked on nearly all the major animal diseases, including foot and mouth disease, African horse sickness, Newcastle disease and highly -pathogenic avian influenza. Peter’s work has been communicated through various publications and international conferences. He was a key note speaker in two major conferences and has received a gold medal for his contribution to the public good. Peter has worked both in developed and developing countries over the years of his career. He has a long experience in preparation and delivery of ‘hands-on’ training courses for postgraduate veterinarians as well.

He will work very closely with Solomon Gizaw, the livestock expert at LIVES, for the next twelve months. Already, the project organized a field trip for Peter and other volunteers to Ejere district for them to get an overview of livestock intervention activities in the project site. The group visited communal grazing land as well as small scale dairy, poultry and backyard apiculture activities carried out by smallholders.  They also visited a youth group involved in sheep fattening.

Peter is a keen bird-watcher so he is excited to explore the variety of beautiful birds in Ethiopia.

Peter’s contributions to the project is supported by the Australian Volunteers for International Development program.