by Mamusha Lemma  

Throughout its activities in Ethiopia, the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project has used participatory processes to design capacity development interventions that assess the knowledge and skills gaps in value chain actors and service providers.

Implemented through training, coaching and mentoring, study tours, and self-learning materials, among other strategies, these interventions have been characterized by experimenting with different capacity development approaches in different regions based on local needs.

Collective exploration and lessons from these tests have helped refine further and articulate more clearly the best capacity development approaches. ToT training, mixed group training, couples training, study tours, and coaching and mentoring have emerged as the most effective ways of developing the knowledge and skills of value chain actors and service providers.

Some of the project’s findings have corrected previous assumptions including the expectation that coaching and mentoring would be conducted only after training activities to support knowledge and skills application. In some areas, study tours followed by coaching and mentoring, or coaching and mentoring alone, have been sufficient in transferring knowledge and skills. For example, when improved livestock or irrigated crops management practices were first introduced to intervention households, a study tour followed by coaching and mentoring was effective in transferring knowledge and skills. In North Gonder Zone in 2014 coaching and mentoring was used to introduce banana farming before producers were trained to develop specific knowledge and skills.

In many LIVES project sites, study tours have been demonstrated to be an effective entry point (compared to starting with training) for motivating producers to adopt improved practices by giving them exposure and practical experiences about new production methods. At the same time, combining training sessions with study tours or field demonstrations has enhanced learning by allowing reflection on field experiences during classroom sessions and by providing ‘authentic’ learning contexts.

The project has also used mixed-group training approaches where development agents and agricultural experts are trained with men and women producers (including husbands and wives) in practical issues of livestock and irrigation value chain interventions across all value chain areas. This mixed training has fostered better interaction among producers and development agents leading to improved understanding and collaboration, and joint commitments to apply new knowledge and skills. This approach has also improved follow-up of producers by development agents and created social pressure on both the development agents and producers to apply what they learn.

Couples training and household coaching and mentoring have proved effective in increasing women’s access to training, knowledge of technical information and knowledge sharing in households leading to informed and collective decision-making, and better mobilization of family labor to adopt improved production practices.

Experiences from LIVES have also shown that focusing interventions on a few selected market-oriented producers and businesses (rather than focusing on all producers) to demonstrate successful value chain enterprises is more effective in influencing other producers and businesses within and beyond project areas and the public extension system at large.

As a result of these LIVES capacity development activities, 7174 (20% female-headed) intervention households have adopted a number of improved livestock and irrigation value chain practices, which has had in turn influenced other producers. A number of input and service providers such as grafted fruit seedling producers, livestock feed suppliers and motor pump repair and maintenance service providers have started to provide input and services to intervention and domain households. For example, in poultry and dairy value chains, intervention households were able to improve their dairy management practices, such as dairy and poultry housing, cleaning of barns, conservation of locally available feed resources, and feeding and watering practices. Improved housing and feeding of livestock were commonly observed applied improvements. Women who have received training and coaching support were also more involved in day-old chicks and pullet production, milk processing and butter selling, harvesting and processing of forage crops, and feeding and watering of animals, leading to increased quantity and quality of milk production.

The use of these experimental approaches has shown different ways of enabling and enhancing learning through experience, which increases the chances for value chain actors readily applying new skills and knowledge in their activities. They have also enabled better targeting of training sessions to respond to specific needs and allowed the use of action planning as the basis for providing coaching and mentoring support. The need to make coaching and mentoring a continuous process of learning engagement focusing not only on production issues but also on organization and linkage between value chain actors has also been demonstrated.

In many project sites, there are examples of uptake of successful interventions by the public extension service, such as the promotion of successful interventions in field days, purchase of inputs such as grafted fruit seedlings from intervention households, incorporating project lessons in planning processes, and use of successful intervention households and input suppliers as demonstration and learning farms. Working with the project, public sector partners have learned that practical knowledge and skills development, practical demonstration of technologies, and regular technical and linkage facilitation support are key to develop the capacity of producers and DAs and to establish trusting relationships between them.

While scaling out of some of the successfully demonstrated interventions has already taken root to a certain extent, continued capacity development support will remain critical to further expand the capacity of the public extension sector and other mandated institutions.

Finally, the experimental approach of using different capacity development approaches has had both advantages and disadvantages. One benefit is that this approach has allowed spontaneous testing of approaches and methods without having specific design principles and elements. Through experimentation and process learning, certain training approaches have been refined and defined as LIVES capacity development approaches. But this approach also has had limitations including lack of consistency and uniformity in application, making it difficult to gather comparative data on training performance and effectiveness of capacity development approaches across regions.

By Abule Ebro, Gemeda Dhuguma, Temsegen Minam and Yared Deribe

Participants visiting the Alama livestock  technologies shop (Photo Credit:ILRI\Abule Ebro)

A combined knowledge sharing program, that included a study tour, skill-based training and livestock technology demonstration, was organized by staff of the Livestock and Irrigated Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project and the Jimma Zone livestock and fishery development offices (JZLFD) to raise the profile of livestock farming in Jimma.

Lack of awareness of best practices/lessons in livestock production and deficiencies in livestock management skills among farmers has hampered livestock development in Dedo, Kersa and Seka Chekorsa, the three LIVES intervention districts in the zone.

Provided by staff of Alama farm and Holeta agricultural and bee research centers, the training, which took place on January 2016 in Bishoftu and Holeta , trained 27 farmers and 10 staff (experts and development workers) from Jimma on the production and management of poultry, dairy and apiculture.

Participants then visited management staff, facilities at the Holeta centres, the Alama livestock technology sale shop, a model layers farm and the Alama Kaudjis feed processing factory. The tours gave farmers and staff of JZLFD opportunity to discuss poultry, dairy and apiculture production and management with farmers around Walmara and Ejere districts of West Shoa zone. Different livestock technologies introduced by the LIVES project were also demonstrated to participants during the training.

The program helped participants to acquire knowledge, practical skill and lessons that will help them to improve their livestock production including information on the different livestock technologies, equipment and drugs available in the country.

Encouraged by what he saw, Abba Temam Abba Lulesa, bought a honey extractor (Photo Credit:ILRI\Abule Ebro)

Among the equipment purchased by farmers during the event included a queen excluder, queen cage, honey extractor, egg trays, chicken feeding and watering equipment, large quantities of medicaments for different livestock species and accessories. Abba Temam Abba Lulesa (61), a resident of Girma peasant association in Kersa District bought a honey extractor worth ETB 6075 (USD 290) for use in producing honey for sale to traders/consumers. He said he would share the extractor with his four friends who are honey producers implying further expansion of technology.

At the end of the program, farmers developed an action plan on how they will use the knowledge, best practices and skills learned. It included plans of sharing their knowledge with fellow farmers and other value chain actors in their associations.

A brief assessment of the trained farmers, undertaken 3-4 months after the program, assessed the changes that resulted from the training. The significant change was observed in apiculture (construction of transitional hives, hive shelters, nuclei box, and improved honey preparation). Improvements were also observed in construction of poultry houses, purchase of improved chicken, poultry management, construction of dairy barns, use of artificial insemination in dairy animals, improved dairy cattle management, forage development and sale, and cattle fattening. However, the findings also revealed a need for further coaching and mentoring of farmers as there was variability in how different farmers were implementing the knowledge acquired.

LIVES acknowledges the contributions of Alama farm, Alama Kaudjis feed processing factory and the Holeta agricultural and bee research centers in this initiative.

By Mamusha Lemma and Gemeda Duguma

Hussien Ahmed, a smallholder farmer, engaged in potato production in Seka Cherkosa (photo credit:ILRI\Gemeda Duguma).

In Ethiopia, smallholder vegetable farmers have very limited direct access to wholesale markets. Because of this, many of them rely on brokers to sell their produce in markets. But these brokers usually set the price, leaving smallholders no room to bargain how much they sell their own produce.

Hussen Ahmed, a smallholder potato farmer in Seka Chekorsa District of Jimma Zone, has been marketing his produce through brokers in Jimma town. He says that when marketing produce through brokers, payments are always delayed. By delaying payments, brokers pressure farmers to sell their produce at the lowest possible prices, giving the brokers nearly all the leverage in negotiating and setting prices with farmers and traders.

But Hussen, and other farmers, now have access to better information and opportunities for marketing their produce which is translating to better incomes for them. After participating in commodity platform meetings organized by the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project, Hussen is now linking with farmers and traders in the district and beyond to sell his potatoes.

He has become an outgrower farmer whose marketing enterprise opens up accessible markets and improved technologies for smallholder farmers in his locality. After learning about new market opportunities, Hussen opened a roadside vegetable market shed where he collects produce from other farmers and sells it to traders in Jimma and beyond. In addition to his own produce, Hussen is engaged in sharecropping arrangements, where he provides other farmers with agricultural inputs (such as seeds, fertilizers and credit) and motor pumps. He also advises other farmers on the use of improved seeds and management practices and supports them with information on access to inputs, technologies and technical advice as well as guaranteeing a market for their produce. In other words, he has become a trusted trader and embedded service provider in his community. He has provided flexible credit and payment arrangements to smallholder farmers. As a result, farmers prefer to sell their produce to him than to the traders in town. In one production season alone, he has sold nearly 50 lorry loads of potato, which earned him about ETB 30,000 (USD 1350).

The LIVES project has participated in the Jimma Zone market linkage facilitation committee and facilitated meetings with farmers and traders in selected irrigation schemes to discuss marketing-related challenges and opportunities including ways of ensuring better prices for farmers’ produce. As a result, farmers in the zone are adopting improved inputs and production methods to improve the quality of their produce to better take advantage of new markets.

The experience from Seka Chekorsa District shows that significant change can be achieved in value chain development by properly identifying key leverage points and improving market linkages between farmers, input suppliers and traders. But success depends on involving all key actors to ensure that they understand what and how they can contribute to better develop the value chain in question. These interactions can also enable farmers to adapt improved technologies and production practices to meet the needs of the market.

By Solomon Gizaw, Tadesse Gugssa, Yayneshet Tesfay, Dawit Woldemariam and Azage Tegegne

Bovipreg cattle pregnancy test kit (photo credit: LIVES).

Effective early pregnancy detection (PD) technology that can be used by farmers themselves is key in improving dairy cattle reproduction and profitability in Ethiopia.

Delayed cattle pregnancy diagnosis lengthens calving intervals and decreases reproduction performance. Rectal palpation, the most common method of pregnancy checking, is not only intrusive but can also be performed only after 2–5 months into the cow’s gestation period by experienced technicians. The method’s accuracy also varies depending on a technician’s experience.

The introduction, a few years ago, of Hormonost® and Preg-Tone in Ethiopia by the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project seeks to provide simple and accurate PD kits, compared to existing options. Even though the Hormonost® test is performed by trained professionals using milk samples and requires costly reagents, it has been well received and adopted by the country’s livestock development bureaus.

LIVES has now introduced an instant farmer-friendly PD technology known as Bovipreg® (pictured above). The technology detects pregnancy 18-21 days after insemination and is easily performed by farmers themselves. It uses milk, blood or urine samples.

The use of Bovipreg® was evaluated through action research under field conditions in smallholder dairy farms in Tigray state in 2016. Twenty-three cows were checked for pregnancy using Bovipreg® 21 days post-insemination (ranging from 15 to 25 days). The cows were then palpated rectally for pregnancy 128 days post insemination (ranging from 122 to 133 days). The pregnancy diagnosis results using Bovipreg® and rectal palpation were similar in 82.6% of the tests or the cows checked. Only three cows that were detected to be positive by Bovipreg® were found to be negative after rectal palpation, and two cows that were detected as negative by Bovipreg® were found to be positive after rectal palpation.  The discrepancies found between the results of Bovipreg® and rectal palpation could be due to embryonic mortality between day 21 (date of Bovipreg® test) and day 228 (date of rectal palpation). The technology was highly appreciated by the AI technicians who check pregnancy by rectal palpation.

Two action research activities are underway in Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples states to further evaluate the performance of Bovipreg®. The next step will be to promote the technology with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries and livestock technology businesses to introduce it at larger scale.

By Mamusha Lemma, Beamlak Tesfaye, Zeleke Mekuriaw, Yigzaw Desalegn and Teshome Derso

Increasingly, many smallholder farmers in Ethiopia are adopting intensive livestock keeping practices in response to population growth and changing farming systems that have reduced sizes of farmlands.

In West Gojam Zone of Amhara Region, for example, smallholder farmers have embraced backyard dairy and cattle fattening activities as an important livestock business. But cattle fatteners there have difficulties accessing quality inputs and profitable markets. Most of the region’s smallholder cattle fatteners sell individual animals in nearby markets or to local traders in their villages. They lack relevant market information, which means they have generally low bargaining power when selling their animals.

The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project has piloted cattle fattening fairs in Amhara to help empower smallholder cattle fatteners by facilitating market linkages and providing them with the information they need to make informed market choices. In West Gojam Zone, these fairs have facilitated knowledge exchanges about improved cattle fattening practices, created linkages among input suppliers, farmers and livestock traders; and influenced policy actions to support and scale out cattle fattening value chains.

Organized and facilitated by LIVES and district offices of agriculture (Mecha and Yilmana Densa), the bureaus of agriculture, and trade, industry and market development; and the Livestock Resource Development Agency in Amhara, these fairs feature a competition for the best fattened animals.

Cattle fattening fair in Merawi, Amhara Region (photo credit: ILRI/Zeleke Mekuriaw).

Farmers with the ‘winning’ animals receive prizes after an evaluation by a panel of judges made up of experts from agricultural research, the livestock agency, traders and slaughterhouses. The animals are evaluated in terms of their body condition based on criteria agreed on by organizers and farmers in these events.

Farmers with the best animals then address participants and share lessons and experiences on animal selection, healthcare, housing, feeding and fattening practices. These events also bring together livestock traders and slaughterhouses to share information on market demands and quality standards. Traders and processors also give feedback to cattle fatteners on the condition of their animals. The fairs also create a positive competitive atmosphere among cattle fatteners.

Enyewu Getahun, a model cattle fattener at the Enamirt kebele, said he visited all cattle fatteners in Mecha District before attending the district cattle fair, which was held in 21 April 2016, to learn about their practices and judge where he stood compared to them. In the process, he created linkages with many other model cattle fatteners, which would not have happened without the fair. After learning about the practices of other cattle fatteners in the district, he was confident that he would win the competition. But since the cattle fattening fair also brings fatteners from other districts, he did not win. But he realized that he needs to do much more to improve his cattle fattening practices in order to raise his chance of winning in future.

After the fair, he decided to improve the design of his cattle shelter and expanded his fattening house. ‘I have found many more opportunities and connected with other cattle fatteners through this fair,’ said Enyewu. He has now become an ‘outfattener’ with linkages to other smallholder fatteners and buying fattened cattle for supply to processors in Addis Ababa.

The cattle fattening fairs have also influenced policy actions. For example, the Livestock Resource Development Agency has now committed to providing health services for model cattle fatteners in their farms. They no longer need to drive them to health service centres to access these services.

Additionally, the fairs, through engaging experts, traders and processors, have contributed to the development of cattle fattening standards for the market. As the cattle fatteners take part in the competitions, they learn about the need to improve their animal management practices and the farmer-to-farmer learning and competition to meet quality standards is also increasing demand for inputs and services.

As a result, the fairs have had wide-ranging effects as compared to training which has limited effects. This suggests that the public extension service should integrate such institutional innovations to create opportunities for men and women smallholder farmers to engage in livestock value chains. Overall, the experience of cattle fattening fairs shows how significant changes can be achieved in livestock value chain development by properly identifying key leverage points and solving critical challenges, such as market linkage facilitation.

But the opportunity to establish market linkages and exchange ideas should be the driving force for cattle fatteners and livestock traders to participate and finance such fairs. At the same time, organizers and stakeholders taking part in such events need to agree on and adopt quality standards. Such standards can inform the public extension service and empower cattle fatteners with the appropriate knowledge and skills in improved cattle fattening. Also, wider success of the initiative will require involvement of private sector actors, such as cattle fattening cooperatives, beef meat boards and association of abattoirs.

Editing by Paul Karaimu.

By Mamusha Lemma, Abule Erbo and Addisu Abera

Haile Adugna apiculture producer in Meta Robi District, Oromia (photo credit:ILRI\Addisu Abera).

Haile Adugna is a farmer in the Suba Gojo kebele of Meta Robi District in West Shoa Zone of Oromia. In 2003, he started a rather traditional apiculture business with 1 modern, 2 transitional and 21 traditional beehives.

After attending a five-day practical skills-based training in improved beekeeping management, in 2014, he has expanded his business and now has more than 115 beehives including 23 modern ones each set up at a cost of ETB 1200 (USD 53) and 36 transitional beehives, which are worth about ETB 800  (USD 36) each.

The course included specifics on constructing and inspecting beehives, colony multiplication and transfer, hive inspection, dearth period feeding, and wax processing.

As a result of investing in the new hives, some of which he made after learning how to construct hives from the training, Haile increased his annual honey production from 5 kg to 10 kg per traditional hive and from 10 kg to 35 kg from a modern beehive in 2015.

Haile’s wife, Gete Adugnawho, who manages the day-to-day running of the apiculture business, learned beekeeping skills from her husband.

When asked about the benefits of the mixed group training approach (training farmers together with development agents and experts), Haile said that it was a rewarding experience both for farmers and development agents. In the training sessions, development agents assist farmers during practical sessions. The agents also become motivated to follow-up the producers/farmers, as they both have shared understanding and make commitments for learning application after the training.

The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project has used action planning to ensure that the learning gained from such training is actually implemented in the workplace/farms. The action plans developed by farmers and development agents are used as the basis for follow-up and providing coaching and mentoring support. Using his new skills, Haile has constructed hives for other farmers in his village and influenced some of them to start beekeeping.

Cattle fattening in Meta Robi District, Oromia (photo credit: ILRI/Addisu Abera).

In 2014,  Haile also received LIVES-supported training in improving livestock production and feeding practices. He says what he learned has enabled him to better understand how to select animals for fattening, improve feeding practices, and connect with quality concentrate feed suppliers. He can now fatten animals within three months using fewer feeds than before and is now also treating locally available feed resources to improve palatability and nutritive value of cattle feeds.

Haile’s activities have positively influenced farmers in his kebele and beyond. In field days organized by Meta Robi District Office of Agriculture in 2014 and 2015, about 200 farmers and development agents from 7 kebeles visited his farm. Development agents have also used his farm as a demonstration site to train other farmers. On a study tour organized by LIVES in 2015, about 50 farmers and development agents from Ada’a Berga District visited him to lean from his experiences.

Going forward, Haile says he plans to buy a feed chopper to formulate mixed feed rations, increase his fattening cycle, and reduce his feed expenses as well as provide chopping services in his community.

This working paper develops and applies an analytical and empirical modelling framework which integrates a sheep flock growth model with and economic model for simulating sheep meat and milk production for ex-ante assessment of the financial profitability of investment interventions to improve sheep production in mixed crop–livestock and agro-pastoral and pastoral production systems in Ethiopia.

Download the working paper:

Negassa, A., Gebremedhin, B., Desta, S., Nigussie, K., Gebru, G., Shapiro, B.I., Dutilly-Diane, C. and Tegegne, A. 2015. Integrated bio-economic simulation model for sheep production: Ex-ante evaluation of investment opportunities in Ethiopia. LIVES Working Paper 9. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

In East Shewa Zone of Ethiopia’s Oromia Region, small-scale farmers use cattle fattening to complement other farming practices. But it often relies on traditional methods suffering from lack of linkage to feed suppliers, inadequate extension support, limited capacities and awareness gaps on improved beef production techniques. These challenges limit the effectiveness of fattening activities and hinder the agricultural productivity of livestock keepers.

On the other hand, farmers’ long established knowledge and experience and their proximity to key markets and availability of concentrate feeds offers opportunities to develop cattle fattening into viable businesses.

A bull calf bought for fattening in Oromia (photo credit: ILRI/Addisu Abera).

The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project is supporting the development of ruminant fattening in the zone through technological demonstrations, capacity development for farmers and extension staff, and creating linkages with concentrate feed suppliers.

The project has trained both male and female farmers on improved livestock feeding, ration formulation, housing, and selection of animals for beef production and linked them to the feed suppliers in Bishoftu and Adama.

Alemu Defersha, a farmer in Lume District’s Shera Dibandiba peasant association (PA) is now making more money from fattening as a result of new knowledge gained which has also helped boost animal housing and feeding in his farm. Previously, in one fattening cycle in a year, he spent ETB 7800 (USD 350) on feeds, ETB 8000 for purchasing animals and ETB 1500 for labour costs. The variable cost added up to ETB 17,300 and he made profits of ETB 20,000. His gross margin was about ETB 2700 while the net margin was ETB 1350.

His new cattle shed of 30 x 30m, which cost ETB 37,700 includes waterers and wooden and plastic feeders. He has also bought more productive oxen, which are vaccinated against blackleg and foot-and-mouth diseases during the fattening period.

His experience in the project has enabled him to shift from traditional feeding practices to stall feeding using cotton seed cake, wheat bran (Frushaka), concentrate feeds (which contain by-products of flour mills and residue of bean, pea and lentil, molasses and salt). Defersha also uses crop residues and hay to provide roughage to his animals.

This year (2016), he has fattened 42 animals and despite facing challenges in accessing local markets in Mojo and Bishoftu towns, he has managed to sell them in the Kera livestock market in Addis Ababa, making a profit of 4,093 (USD 185) per animal.

He spent ETB 336,000 to purchase the animals, ETB 67,646 for feeds, ETB 10,500 and ETB 30,400 for labour and marketing costs, respectively, and gained a total revenue of ETB 624,000 (28,773 USD) in 2016. This translates to a marginal return of 130% (per animal) even though these figures do not fully capture the effect of scaling and his adoption of improved management practices.

Despite Derfesha’s gains from the improved beef production and relatively large-scale fattening activity, he and other cattle fatteners need to overcome challenges of high transaction cost resulting from the presence of middlemen in the livestock marketing chain in Addis Ababa. The market for fattened animals is also not guaranteed meaning farmers are not assured of a regular income.

By Yared Deribe, Abule Ebro, Nigatu Alemayehu and Dereje Legesse

This working paper presents an analytical and empirical modelling framework which integrates dairy cattle herd growth and economic model for simulating milk production in traditional dairy cattle production systems. The framework allows for assessing the technical and financial performance of dairy production under two conditions: ‘without’ intervention and ‘with’ intervention. The bio-economic simulation analyses of milk production for different cattle production systems for the ‘without’ intervention situation is used to assess and identify potential areas for policy and investment interventions to improve the future performance of dairy cattle sub-sector in Ethiopia.

The baseline assessment of the cattle production systems indicates that the existing traditional smallholders dairy cattle production system is characterized by high mortality rates, low fertility and low commercial milk offtake rates. The average cattle herd size observed is very small, particularly in the mixed crop livestock production system. A bio-economic simulation model for the ‘without’ intervention situation indicates that cattle production in different production systems is growing at annual growth rate of 5–10%. The baseline assessment also indicates that adult female cattle are the most important classes of cattle explaining the various future cattle population growth trajectories.

The observed low level of productivity and reproductive performance in dairy cattle indicates the need to invest in
cattle genetic improvement, health, reproductive management and nutrition. Particularly, the results of sensitivity and elasticity analyses indicate that female cattle fertility contributes only 9–10%, while the annual survival rates of adult female cattle contributes about 59–61% to the cattle herd growth rate.

Thus, under the baseline scenario, it is more important to reduce mortality rate than improve the fertility of cattle to increase cattle herd growth in different production systems. This indicates the importance of identifying the causes of cattle mortality and implementing cost-effective measures to reduce it.

The results of the bio-economic simulation analysis indicate that the combined investment interventions in cattle health, feeding, reproductive and management practices to reduce young stock and adult stock mortality and to improve dairy breed through AI and synchronization is financially viable and enhances Ethiopia’s milk self-sufficiency ratio and has significant impact on cattle keepers income.

To realize the expected milk increases, sufficient feed availability to meet the increased feed demand arising from the improved breeds will be required in the areas where AI and synchronization are implemented. Specialized extension services will also be essential to support and backstop farmers in the intensive management required for the crossbred milking cows.

In addition to fodder, crossbred milking cows will also require concentrate feeds. As dairy cattle population increases, the demand for concentrate feed will also increase. At present there are not enough grain mills and oil processing plants to cater for the present needs of existing dairy cows, much less the anticipated growth. Incentives to promote investments in the agro-processing industries would pay huge dividends in terms of meeting the growing concentrate feed gap.

To sustain a regular, sustained increase in the volume of milk produced and marketed, establishing more processing capacity will be essential. Although there is strong evidence that dairy processors are ready to invest in new and increased capacity, they are often discouraged and hindered by bureaucratic obstacles to investing. Besides having fair access to bank credit, investors will need to be supported in their efforts to create the milk collection and supply chains needed to connect farm milk producers to their processing facilities, through cooperatives or directly. As well, before potential smallholder dairy farmers will make the investments required to produce the amount and quality of milk required by processors, they will need to be assured of a regular, daily market for their milk.

Further, given that there are presently few assured, regular market centres for dairy products in Ethiopia, with the exception of a few major urban areas, poorly functioning markets presently negatively affect investment in dairy production and processing, as well as consumption growth in the country. Milk production and consumption cannot be expected to increase substantially unless well-functioning product distribution and marketing systems, bridging rural supply and urban demand, are also in place. Meanwhile, demand for milk in rural areas is for fresh milk and is currently satisfied by home production or the direct sales of raw milk. The demand for processed milk in rural areas is almost non-existent and this is not expected to change in the near future.

The potential for transforming the dairy industry in Ethiopia is indeed great, yet the challenges should not be under-estimated. For success to be achieved, there will need to be government investment in more effective extension services, AI infrastructure and health services, as well as more conducive policies and laws establishing clear sanitary standards and regulations, together with enforcement. Similarly, investment from the private sector will also be needed and these will only be realized if the government creates a supportive investment climate with reduced bureaucratic obstacles to obtaining land to set up and build dairy agribusinesses. Programs to promote market development and trade by fostering business linkages, by providing technical and business training to all value chain actors, and by promoting technology transfer will also be necessary to achieve the anticipated developmental results shown possible in the dairy investment scenario

Download the working paper:

Negassa, A., Gebremedhin, B., Nigussie, K., Gebru, G., Desta, S., Shapiro, B., Dutilly-Diane, C. and Tegegne, A. 2015. Transforming traditional smallholder cow milk production systems in Ethiopia: Ex-ante evaluation. LIVES Working Paper 7. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

The performance of smallholder irrigation schemes are challenged by several factors: among which water insecurity and low land and water productivity are the main ones.

This working paper evaluates the on-farm management of nine smallholder irrigation schemes from four regional states in Ethiopia. The schemes are diverse in several aspects and we clustered them into three typologies: Modern, semi-modern and traditional. Indicators such as land productivity (LP), crop water productivity (CWP) were used in evaluating performances.

The results illustrates apparent variability of LP among schemes; scheme typology and reaches. The lowest value of LP was estimated for the traditional schemes and inter-scheme variation was also notable. For example for onion, the value for LP ranged between 7.13 and 14.55 tonnes/ha. For tomato the range was even wider: 0.9–10.29 tonnes/ha. The Meki scheme showed the highest land productivity for onion and tomato with the magnitude of 14.55 and 10.29 tonnes/ha respectively. For irrigated cereals (maize and wheat) LP values showed a similar trend as for vegetables. For example the LP value for maize range between 0.65 and 3.92 tonnes/ha and for wheat the range was narrower (0.6 and 1.56 tonnes/ha).

Generally these values are less than the values reported as sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regional average suggesting the need to address yield limiting factors in smallholder schemes in Ethiopia. Water productivity by water supplied at field levels (WPf) for cereals was generally on the lower side; it is somewhat on the higher side for vegetables compared to observations from SSA.

Schemes and reaches with higher land productivity do not necessarily shows higher WPf. Modern schemes and head irrigators have usually higher land productivity but low water productivity. The opposite holds true for the traditional irrigation and tail irrigators. The traditional schemes and tail irrigator normally suffer from water shortage and most often practicing forced deficit irrigation and also select crops with low water requirement. Hence they save water while trying to minimize impact on the yield through crop selection. Implicitly future direction of improving smallholder irrigation need to acknowledge this reality and put efforts to save water on head irrigators and increase land productivity under traditional and tail irrigators and promote sustainability and equitable share of water in smallholder irrigation.

Probably alternatives such as valuation of water and a consumption-based water charge need to be taken into account in efforts to discourage over irrigation and enhance equitable water management by smallholders. It is also important to note that smallholder water management decisions are complex and so are the values for their performance indicators. Therefore, any development efforts dealing with smallholder irrigation need to disentangle and understand this diversity and ensure interventions are context specific

Download the working paper:

Haileslassie, A., Agide, Z., Erkossa, T., Hoekstra, D., Schmitter, P. and Langan, S. 2016. On-farm smallholder irrigation performance in Ethiopia: From water use efficiency to equity and sustainability. LIVES Working Paper 19. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

Using a stochastic frontier production model, this working paper quantifies the extent of technical efficiency and identifies exogenous determinants of inefficiency among small-scale honey producers in Ethiopia.

Results show that traditional practices dominate the apiculture sub-sector in Ethiopia. The findings also reveal that the use of purchased inputs such as bee forage and supplement is very limited among honey producers, indicating that natural bee forage is the primary source of food supply for bees.

The immediate consequence of all these is low production and productivity. The number of hives a household owns, whether a household used improved apiculture technologies, availability of natural forest, which is the primary sources of nectar for bees, and amount of land owned by a households were found to have a significant influence on the amount of honey produced by beekeepers. Our results further show that the mean technical efficiency of honey producers is 0.79 implying that, on average, honey producers produce 80% of the maximum output.

The implication is that 20% of the potential output is lost due to technical inefficiency. The number of hives owned by a honey producer, distance to district town, proximity to market access and household wealth, affect the technical efficiency of honey producers.

The findings suggest that policies that aim to expand the use of improved hives are expected to increase the honey production at household level. The results also suggest that investment on rural infrastructure would be instrumental in improving technical efficiency of honey producers.

Download the working paper:

Shiferaw, K. and Gebremedhin, B. 2016. Technical efficiency of small-scale honey producers in Ethiopia: A stochastic frontier analysis. LIVES Working Paper 20. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

Blanket recommendations of technologies and improved practices could be one of the reasons for low adoption of interventions by agricultural systems which are highly diverse in agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions. The purpose of classification of farming systems is to develop strategies and interventions relevant to the various systems which may vary in the type and degree of severity of constraints, resource base and enterprise patterns.

Dairy farming systems in Ethiopia have been extensively characterized. However, a comprehensive characterization of dairy systems in the highlands across the value chain supported with quantitative data and a valid statistical analysis is rare in the literature.

The LIVES project has initiated case studies through its MSc sponsorship program to characterize dairy systems in the highland states of Ethiopia, namely Amhara, Tigray, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ region (SNNPR) and Oromia. This working paper synthesizes and analyses two case studies in five districts of Amhara and Oromia states.

This working paper identified characteristic features of smallholder dairy farming in the highlands of Ethiopia, reclassifies sample farmers to the highland dairy farming systems with quantitative data and statistical analysis, and identifies system-specific constraints and leverage points for developing the dairy value chain.

The study found that smallholder dairy farming in the highlands is diverse in characteristics and constraints. A multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to re-classify the sampled farmers in the study areas into rural, peri-urban and urban categories based on five categorical and seven covariate variables representing scale of production, production resources, production practices, breeds and genotypes used, marketing objective and contributions to livelihood.

The statistical model classified 83.5% of the sampled farmers correctly to their observed categories of dairy farming systems. The variables that significantly contributed to the classification were the breeds and genotypes kept, daily milk production, earning from livestock, and cow feeding practice. However, the peri-urban and urban systems classified poorly with 50–65% correct classification, indicating the two systems might share some similar characteristics.

The importance of livestock in general and dairy production in particular varied across systems. While livestock production is most important activity for nearly 100% of the urban dairy farmers surveyed, its role as the most important or sole source of livelihood declines to 3.3% and 13.1% of the farmers in rural and peri-urban areas, respectively.

The contribution of livestock to the annual farm income is highest for the urban farmers. However, livestock is also very important source of farm cash income in rural areas, where cropping plays a major livelihood role, for some 44.2% of the interviewed farmers who earn ETB 20,000–40,000 annually. Annual cash income from crop production is lower than ETB 9000 for almost all the urban and peri-urban farmers interviewed, whereas about 84.5% of the rural farmers earn more than ETB 9000 per annum from crop production.

Another classifying characteristics is the type of breeds and genotypes kept by farmers. Using a generalized multinomial regression model, it was found that the rural dairy farmers are 3.3 times more likely when compared to urban farmers to keep low grade crossbred cows with exotic blood level of less than 50%. On the other hand, peri-urban farmers are significantly more likely (P<0.05; odds ratio = 0.94) to keep medium-grade cows than urban farmers. Urban farmers are more likely to keep high grade cows with exotic blood level of greater than 75%, but the difference between urban and peri-urban systems was not statistically significant. The urban, and in some cases the peri-urban, systems are generally described as landless dairy farmers. The urban farmers in the major cities and owns are less likely to practice crop farming. On the contrary, urban farmers in regional towns in the current study are sort of mixed livestock-crop farmers, albeit on very small plots of land, the average crop land holding being 0.025 and 0.15 ha in West Gojam and West Shoa.

The major constraints identified included low scale of production, low productivity that varies across systems, failure to maintain exotic inheritance at farm level resulting in herds with mixed genotypes which are not amenable to recommendation for value chain interventions, least access by the rural system to artificial insemination (AI) service and questions by the urbanites on its efficiency, heifer supply least satisfactory among breeding services, concentrate feed cost threatening urban/peri-urban dairies, unhygienic milk handling and consumption, particularly in rural areas, price of milk generally too low for producers, especially for rural farmers. Leverage points corresponding to the challenges were suggested for developing the dairy value chain in the highlands.

Download the working paper:

Gizaw, S., Megersa, A., Muluye, M., Hoekstra, D., Gebremedhin, B. and Tegegne, A. 2016. Smallholder dairy farming systems in the highlands of Ethiopia: System-specific constraints and intervention options. LIVES Working Paper 23. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

This working paper synthesizes and analyses the genetic, morphological and production system characteristics of five indigenous goat populations of Ethiopia, namely Ambo, Gondar, Woyto-Guji, Arsi-Bale Highland and Arsi-Bale lowland goats.

The paper is based on three MSc theses and one ongoing PhD study. Based on the analysis, the paper recommends intervention options for genetic improvement and conservation of the goat resources and for sustainable production systems under which the goat populations are raised. Morphologically, the majority of the Ambo goat population have a patchy coat colour pattern. Pure white and mixed coat colours describe the Gondar goat population and the majority of the goats are horned, males have ruff but not the females. Similarly, Woyto-Guji is described by patchy, plain and spotted coat colour. Both Arsi-Bale Highland and Lowland goat populations can be characterized dominantly by plain coat colour of black and white. However, the second dominant coat colour pattern in the highland and lowland goat populations, respectively, is patchy and spotted coat colour pattern.

Molecular analysis revealed very narrow genetic differentiation with only two haplogroups or maternal origins (haplogroup A and G). The highest number of haplotypes was obtained in Gondar goat population and the lowest in Ambo.

Demographic expansion analysis showed two recent and rapid expansion events of the goat populations. Most of the variation in the goat populations is explained by within population variation and the pair-wise population differentiation estimates were very low. This is because of the presence of large population admixture.

The major challenges of the goat production in all the study areas are disease, drought, feed and water shortages, in ranking order. The goat marketing practice is traditional in all the study areas.

Genetic improvement options for these goat populations need to consider the production environments in which the populations are maintained. Selective breeding could be considered as a suitable breeding strategy with application of genomic and reproductive technologies as appropriate. Selective breeding together with intervention options to improve the production environment to overcome the production constraints ranked by farmers would contribute to designing sustainable production systems for the goat populations studied. For this, a parallel development in infrastructure and institutional framework is required.

Download the working paper:

Mekuriaw, G., Gizaw, S. and Tegegne, A. 2016. Genetic-phenotypic and production-system diversity in goat populations in Ethiopia: Options for sustainable production. LIVES Working Paper 22. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

Access to credit is often viewed as a key to transforming semi-subsistence smallholder farmers into market-oriented producers. However, only a few studies have examined the factors that affect farmers’ decisions to allocate credit to farm activities in general and livestock production in particular.

This working paper employs a trivariate probit model with double selection to address the issue using data collected from smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. After using a two-step procedure to adjust for sample selection bias, gender of household head, land ownership and access to a livestock centred extension service are found to have a significant effect on farmers decision to use credit for livestock production.

The results showed female-headed households, farmers with a large plot of land and farmers that have access to livestock centred extension services are more likely to utilize credit for livestock production. However, since the effect of land ownership squared is negative, the effect of land ownership lessens for those who own a very large plot of land. The study highlights the fact that lending to female-household heads may lead to increased access to animal-sourced foods for rural households. Furthermore, the study shows that improving farmers’ access to credit should be supported by a focused extension service that addresses the special needs of female farmers.

Download the working paper:

Shiferaw, K., Gebremedhin, B. and Legesse, D. 2016. Factors determining household allocation of credit to livestock production in Ethiopia. LIVES Working Paper 21. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

Irrigation systems consist of three interdependent components involving: the irrigation scheme, the on-farm management and the organizations. The irrigation scheme refers to the infrastructure for water acquisition and distribution (water delivery).

This working paper focuses on water delivery performance of 10 smallholders irrigation schemes in four regions of Ethiopia, representing diverse water sources, distribution systems, command areas (50–6000 ha) and number of beneficiary farmers (233–500 farm households) and across agro-ecologies as represented by elevation ranges (1500–2725 masl).

Relative irrigation supply (RIS), irrigation intensity (Ii), cropping intensity (CI), farm level adequacy (FLA), sustainability of irrigated land (SIL), and equity and field application efficiency were employed as performance indicators.

The results show that irrigation typology developed in this study enabled to identify three relatively homogeneous irrigation schemes typologies: modern, semi-modern and traditional. There was apparent diversity of the study schemes in terms of indicators used. At typology level, as illustrated by the RIS, the highest amount of water was diverted for semi-modern schemes (RIS of 3.84); while the highest water delivery at farm relative delivery (FRD) was recorded for the modern schemes (FRD 2.21).

Traditional schemes consistently showed lower value for both RIS and FRD. Regardless of their typologies, all study schemes suffer from mismatch of water demand and supply. The lower the RIS and FRD values, the stronger was the water supply disparities between irrigation reaches. Assessment of farmers’ perception on fairness of irrigation water delivery substantiate these arguments.

Implicitly, it is important to track the fate of diverted excess water. Field observation and empirical evidences show divergent points of losses of excess water indicating focus areas of improved water conservation on smallholder irrigation schemes. For example the largest proportion of over supplied water (~100%) in the semi-modern schemes and in traditional schemes was lost in the conveyance and distribution systems. For modern schemes water losses in the processes of conveyance was low (26%), while the significant proportion of water (76%) was lost on farm. In view of this evidence, we concluded that irrigation schemes in Ethiopia, regardless of their typology, have low water delivery performance. As every scheme has shown its own strength and weakness, concluding sustainability in terms of typology is misleading and this suggests that policy directions should be based on composite sustainability indices.

Download the working paper:

Agide, Z., Haileslassie, A., Sally, H., Erkossa, T., Schmitter, P., Langan, S. and Hoekstra, D. .2016. Analysis of water delivery performance of smallholder irrigation schemes in Ethiopia: Diversity and lessons across schemes, typologies and reaches. LIVES Working Paper 15. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

Irrigation systems cannot ensure the equitable distribution of water among users and sustainable operation and maintenance of the schemes without capable irrigation institutions.

In Ethiopia, traditional institutions have emerged with the expansion of traditional irrigation schemes and most of them were established and operated on the initiative of the farmers. These often have very limited financial and technical capacities. Current trends show that developing infrastructure is the major concern in irrigation development efforts. However, managing the schemes is largely overlooked, particularly for externally initiated irrigation schemes. Operation and maintenance of the irrigation schemes, particularly those at tertiary levels, are commonly not well set and often neglected or left to farmers without building their capacities.

This working paper reports on a study in Ethiopia to: i) assess the nature and diversity of irrigation institutions in the study schemes; ii) evaluate existing institutions service delivery with respect to selected attributes and draw useful lessons; and iii) identify appropriate interventions.

The study focused on 10 irrigation schemes located in four regional states of Ethiopia (Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and SNNP). We clustered the study schemes as modern, semi-modern and traditional, using selected criteria (operation and maintenance service delivery, managing financial service delivery, level of inequity) to generate empirical evidence for evaluation of their performances.

The results found two forms of irrigation institutions: irrigation water users associations (IWUA) and irrigation cooperatives or water committee. More than 30% of the irrigation schemes considered in the study, regardless of their typology, had no institution. Membership in the irrigation institution for traditional schemes was 100%, while the average membership both in modern and semi-modern schemes was about 70% of the respondents. This contrasts with the new proclamation in Ethiopia on IWUA which suggest mandatory membership for any water user in a scheme.

Without exception, bylaws were either not detailed enough to address scheme specific problems or not recorded at all. Ambiguity associated with these, and probably presence of non-member water users, deterred the decision-making processes and the enforcement of rules and regulations for water use, thus create opportunities for free riders. This also explains the reason for occasional conflict between irrigators and the inequity of water distribution within scheme.

In many cases, irrigation institutions service delivery limited to operational management and other services, such as financial management, were not common even at those schemes where irrigation fee exists. Problems associated with a lack of empirical evidence as to what to pay for and how much to pay and the application of flat rate—regardless of the amount of irrigation water used, which is not measured—and crop types grown as currently practised will not act as an incentive for prudent water use.

Establishing the amount and types of irrigation water fees will be an important step to finance irrigation schemes. Understanding this diversity and these gaps and tailoring actions to local conditions is vital efforts to improve the service delivery of irrigation institutions in Ethiopia. Second, the service required for the sustainable management of irrigation schemes and mechanisms to operate them needs to be standardized.

Download the working paper:

Haileslassie, A., Hagos, F., Agide, Z., Tesema, E., Hoekstra, D. and Langan, S. 2016. Institutions for irrigation water management in Ethiopia: Assessing diversity and service delivery. LIVES Working Paper 17. Nairobi. Kenya: ILRI.

By Mamusha Lemma and Beamlak Tesfaye

The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project aims to support the efforts of the Ethiopian government to transform smallholder agriculture in the country.

Using a value chain development approach, LIVES has implemented various interventions using the pillars of knowledge management and promotion.

The project has used different knowledge management and promotion approaches including agricultural knowledge centres, study tours, field days, commodity platforms, technology demonstrations, campaigns, and exhibitions and fairs with different but complementary objectives, to address different target groups at different levels.

Agricultural knowledge centres have supported organizational learning of public extension services by improving access to knowledge and developing capacity for knowledge capturing and sharing. Study tours have been used to motivate and influence value chain actors and support systems to adopt or support livestock and irrigation value chain interventions through exposure to external knowledge and experience, while field days promote and spread innovations in communities by demonstrating effects of intervention in households. Commodity platform meetings operate at different levels, and are mainly used for planning interventions. At the operational level, they have promoted interaction, shared knowledge and created linkages among value chain actors for new business opportunities and at a higher level, they have brought key value chain bottlenecks to the attention of policymakers.

A range of promotional activities have also been implemented by the project; among them technology demonstrations, school milk days, and technology exhibitions and fairs. A number of livestock and irrigation technology demonstration events have been held in LIVES sites which have helped value chain actors learn first-hand the benefits of using specific improved technologies and practices. Among the technologies that have been promoted and adopted by producers and input and service providers include livestock feed choppers and balers. The project has facilitated linkages between farmers and the suppliers of these technologies.

Additionally, participating in campaigns such as the ‘World School Milk Day’ has created awareness about, and demand for, milk consumption particularly among children. These campaigns have also brought together a wide range of actors ranging from policymakers, dairy producers, input and service providers, milk processors and marketers, dairy cooperatives, community leaders and the media. At the same time, technology exhibitions and financial fairs have supported the creation of linkages and business partnerships among value chain actors. In most of the cases, LIVES has demonstrated technologies in events organized by other stakeholders or co-organized such promotional events. Particularly, cattle fattening fairs have been uniquely initiated by LIVES and implemented in collaboration with private and public partners mostly in the Amhara region. The events have benefited cattle fatteners, animal traders and policymakers.

Each of these knowledge management and promotional activities has its strengths. In terms of cost effectiveness and influencing at the community level, field days, technology demonstrations and product fairs have been found to be the best options. Study tours are effective in creating motivation and demands for adoption of improved technologies and practices but are, however, expensive and they require significant organizational and facilitation capacity. Commodity platforms, exhibitions and fairs have also been effective in creating awareness, interactions and exchanges among value chain actors and support systems. Linkage facilitation among value chain actors for exchanges of ideas, innovations and new business opportunities has been key outcome of LIVES sharing and promotional events.

Gender inclusiveness has also been a key feature of LIVES knowledge management and promotional activities. Field days have engaged women at the community level (about 21% participation) in LIVES intervention districts. In commodity platform meetings, despite the efforts to involve women, their participation in such meetings has limited (about 17% participation). In contrast, women focused study tours organized in nearby sites have involved more women and couples (about 23% female participation). But there are challenges in engaging women in study tours that require travelling long distances especially when no other family members are available to take up household responsibilities during this time.

The project team has found that involving couples and married women in long distance experience sharing visits which keep them away from their homes for more than a day distrusts their day-to-day life and affects participation. Consequently, couples and married women are now encouraged to join events organized close to their villages, such as field days, technology demonstrations and community-based product fairs. In addition, married women selected for experience sharing visits that involve more than a day’s travel from their homes are encouraged to involve and consult their husbands on the benefits of participating in such learning events.

In many LIVES sites, partners have adopted some of the successful knowledge management and promotional approaches. In West Shoa Zone, for example, partners in the district have organized field days and study tours to LIVES intervention households. Local NGOs have also organized study tours for producers and extension staff from domain districts to intervention households, and input and service providers. In addition, most of the intervention districts’ teams have mobilized resources, such as computers, furniture and internet subscriptions, to set up knowledge centres. In Amhara, the cattle fattening fair initiative has been taken up by the regional government, while in Oromia, commodity platforms have been supported by the regional government.

LIVES experience in organizing and facilitating learning and sharing events has given valuable lessons than can inform the scaling out process of successful interventions. Firstly, no single approach is best. A combination of different approaches with appropriate sequencing of learning and sharing activities should, therefore, be used. Secondly, appropriate targeting and selection of participants particularly for study tours is important.  Study tour participants should be those producers and input and service providers who are already engaged, or are likely to engage, in specific value chain activities. Thirdly, successful learning and sharing events require a basic level of organizational and facilitation capacity. Clearly articulating learning outcomes and tailoring learning activities in terms of how knowledge will be applied practically is key in maximizing investments in learning and sharing events. In addition, follow-up activities help in ensuring knowledge gained is used and actions proposed are taken up and linkages created. Finally, organizing learning and sharing events with lasting impact requires the support of the actors likely to play a role in the application of knowledge gained.

By Ephrem Tesema and Mesfin Tefera

Women making traditional hives from bamboo and mud (photo credit: ILRI/Mesfin Tefera).

Apiculture is one of the new ventures introduced by the Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for the Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project in South Wollo, Amhara Region.

Locally made transitional beehives, which are easily managed by women, were installed close to farmers’ homesteads and LIVES facilitated awareness-raising activities on the importance of enhancing women’s involvement in beekeeping.

One of the immediate outcomes of the intervention has been an increase in the number of women beekeepers, from virtually none to 15 women beekeepers at present in intervention areas in South Wollo.

The use of top-bar beehives contributed to an increased household income not only because of increased yields but also because of the higher quality of honey produced. This growth is leading to growing demand for high-quality  honey in the market and opening up new opportunities for upscaling this intervention model into areas beyond the intervention sites.

Zeritu Ahmed, a female smallholders in Kalu District attended apiculture training organized by the LIVES project and the district office of agriculture. Afterward, she became one of the innovative full-time farmers engaged in apiculture overcoming constraints related to existing gender norms and the challenges of working in a male-dominated enterprise.

Zeritu is now a model farmer for other farmers (both men and women) in the surrounding area and has earned respect for her courage, innovativeness and for being a role model for other women to venture into apiculture.

Zeritu’s experience and her role as a model beekeeper shows that integration of women into the honey value chain has a positive effect on household income and employment. The program has encouraged partnerships between women groups of beekeepers and the Honey Producers Associations in South Wollo to further strengthen the honey value chain as a whole. A revolving fund that can provide affordable input technology services to group members and embedded management skill training by the Honey Processors’ Association is now being explored to ensure the initiative is sustainable.

Setting up input supply mechanism for bee colonies and wax and also engaging in honey production simultaneously would enable more women bee keepers to generate higher income from apiculture. And these groups would also help in bulking produce and enhance access to markets thereby reducing instances of arbitrary selling of honey at low prices. Increased support to the initiative is expected to yield enormous benefits in terms of gender empowerment, value addition to products in the honey value chain and in improving incomes for smallholders.

By Desalegne Tadesse

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) Project recently conducted a training on irrigation scheme management for farmers and agricultural experts in the Mehtsab Azmati Irrigation Scheme in Rama, Tigray.

The Mehtsab Azmati scheme supplies irrigation water for 8000 households in the Hamido plain helping them to obtain higher yields than they could without irrigation. The scheme’s 2000 hectares of irrigated land is an emerging success story for irrigation development in Ethiopia. Farmers there produce vegetables, fruits (mainly mango) and the scheme also has potential for fodder development through irrigation.

Held on 16–17 January 2017 at the Mehtsab Azmati irrigation scheme in Rama, Tigray, the training enhanced the knowledge and skills in irrigation development and value chain development for 26 farmers and agricultural experts.

Earlier, in December 2016, a team of experts comprising of IWMI, LIVES, Tigray Regional State Agricultural Bureau & Rural Development, and the Tigray Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) had conducted a field visit/scoping study to the Mehtsab Azmati irrigation scheme to find out the opportunities and challenges in developing integrated and market-oriented production. The mission also aimed at understanding the local implementers’ capacity and perception of irrigation scheme management.

The study team identified a significant potential for Rama to serve as a market hub for vegetables, fruits, and fodder in the region. But gaps were identified in livestock and irrigated crops value chain development with particular challenges related to efficient use of water including salinity, rising groundwater level among others that could undermine the sustainability of the scheme.

In addition, the significance of training for experts and farmers on irrigation scheme management were among remarkable gaps underlined in the scoping study mission report. To this end, the Region Bureau of Agriculture requested LIVES and IWMI to share their experiences in order to fill these gaps.

The irrigation scheme management training focused on addressing and responding to to some of the issues emerging from the scoping study. It focused on creating an understanding among participants of the benefits and impact of efficient irrigation scheme management in resolving multifaceted agricultural water management challenges and in contributing to value chain development.

Participants were equipped with knowledge and skills in improving the effectiveness, efficient, and timely use of resources, methods and strategies for irrigation development, agronomy and watershed management. The training covered crop water requirement, furrow irrigation method (including soil moisture distribution pattern), irrigation scheme management, criteria to evaluate water delivery service, the significance of collecting/monitoring irrigation data in irrigation scheme. In addition, lesson from Koga Irrigation scheme were shared with the participants.

Insights and observations from the scoping study and field visit confirm that the scheme is experiencing severe disruptions in land and water productivity and increased salinity and nutrient depletion which affects its productivity.

The training was led by Alemseged Tamiru and Desalegne Tadesse of IWMI-Ethiopia; Fanuel Laekemariam of Wolayta University, and Gebremedhin Woldewahid from LIVES.

Livestock and Irrigation Value chain for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) is an International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)-led project funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) of Canada. It aims to contribute to enhanced income and gender equitable wealth creation for smallholders, and other value chain actors in Ethiopia. IWMI is responsible for the irrigation value chain components of the project.

By Dereje Legesse (LIVES Agribusiness Expert)

Working with national and regional partners, the Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for the Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project has designed sustainable value chain interventions to promote agriculture as a business for both livestock and irrigated crop commodities.

This article shares lessons from the implementation of these interventions. The goal of these activities is to promote market-oriented agriculture through increasing access to input/service supply and market opportunities for all value chain actors by accelerating efficiency and competitiveness in the business sector.

Each of the interventions targeted both new and existing agribusinesses engaged in input supply, service delivery and marketing or processing of commodities. Each of these businesses had different ownership structures—public, private, group, and cooperative/union.

Priority commodity value chains and intervention areas in four LIVES regions in Ethiopia.

Appropriate interventions were designed and promoted in the 31 districts in 10 zones and 4 regions—Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNPR) and Tigray—where the project is developing commodity value chain systems for dairy, beef, small ruminant, poultry, apiculture, fodder, fruit, and vegetable commodities.

Technical and business development support was offered to value chain actors under the initiative including in basic business, organization, and leadership skills; enhancing business to business and farmer to business links to market and financial services, cost/benefit analysis, advice on alternative financing (financial leasing) and cost saving transactions (mobile banking).

Achievements

As of 31 March 2017, 2,356 agribusinesses had received support from LIVES. Out of these, 1,753 are engaged in input/service supply and 603 in marketing/processing businesses.

LIVES supported Agribusiness by March 2017

The project has facilitated new ideas through commodity platform meetings, new technology demonstrations and other means that have led to the establishment of new businesses. Out of the total number of agribusinesses supported by the project, 589 (25%) have established new businesses, out of which 454 are engaged in input/service supply and 135 in marketing or processing.

LIVES supported Agribusiness by commodity

These businesses have increased access and use of input supplies and services for smallholder farmers and enhanced value addition and market opportunities for value chain actors.

In the mid-term community survey conducted by LIVES in 2016 (covering the time 2012 to 2015) about 49% and 24% of smallholders who have access to and use, the public extension service (for information and knowledge, capacity building/training and linkages support) are satisfied and very satisfied, respectively.

Key lessons and challenges

Despite the achievements of the project in using agribusiness approaches and methods to promote the integration of farmers with markets; challenges have been encountered and lessons learnt in the implementation process.

The most common challenges are lack information by smallholders about the availability of improved input/service supply and processing/ marketing businesses, limited financial access to promote agriculture as a business, and little interest from the private sector in doing business in the agriculture sector. A lack of empirical cost/benefit data to enable business plan has affected the cash flow of community-owned businesses. Information asymmetry, moral hazards and free riding have also been observed.

The importance of addressing market-related challenges is reflected in a number of platform meetings and coaching/mentoring sessions held during the project period. Value chain actors also face commodity- and location-specific market challenges in handling increased production from the adoption of improved farming methods, better post-harvest handling techniques and scaling out.

The cheapest way to enhance realized results in response to these challenges is promoting market-oriented extension services; engaging financial service providers to offer alternative financing (leasing) and delivery channels (mobile banking); encouraging the establishment of private businesses (including family and community-owned); integrating project activities with existing women and youth empowerment activities; and ensuring reliable of local repair and maintenance services for selected technologies.

The project is working with partners to provide information, facilitate market opportunities (including collective marketing), link different value chain actors and promote local demand to address marketing bottlenecks.