Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Finding ways to improve the agricultural setting and livelihoods of the people is
therefore a top priority for the Ethiopian Government. The project has looked into
several possible “development pathways”. Several conclusions could be drawn by
the research on sustainable agriculture:
Firstly, it showed that the variable onset of rains is crucial to crop growth. The
issue is not so much the amount of rain, which is on average sufficient, but unpre-
dictable start of the rains. If farmers sow their crops too early or too late (i.e., the
rains unexpectedly start too late or too early), then the risk of crop failure, and
famine are very high. Stone or soil bunds can conserve the moisture content and,
therefore, are a way to reduce this risk to some extent.
Secondly, although nutrient losses are high, replenishing the soil with organic
materials is not a feasible option, because of the scarcity of plant resources. Crop
residues are important sources of livestock feed and fuel and cannot be used as green
manure, or mulching. External resources are key to maintaining soil nutrient balances.
However, markets are often far away, there are few roads and farmers have no
money to buy fertilizer.
Thirdly, a widespread reforestation of erosion-prone catchments leads to a rela-
tively minor decrease in soil erosion and may not be worth the opportunity costs of
losing agricultural land. However, when taking into account other benefits of trees
(for fodder, food, fuel), reforestation may be a viable option.
Finally, non-agricultural areas or fallow areas where there is bush growth, are a
valuable resource for livestock feed. The farming system does not produce sufficient
feed resources and the amount of feed livestock can get from (communal) grazing
areas is limited.
There were very little opportunities for improved land management in Northern
Tigray, one of the poorest areas in the world.
3) What are the outputs in terms of capacity-building and partnerships?
Capacity building
•
The overall project included 3 PhD students from Mekelle University who started
their PhD programme at Wageningen University. The researchers from Alterra,
PRI and LEI collaborated with these students in the project.
•
After the project ended, the models (software), data used and results were given
to Mekelle University.
•
Workshops with policymakers, NGOs and other key stakeholders in defining
policy in Tigray were held throughout the project. In these workshops, results
from the project were discussed, which enhanced learning by all parties.
Partnerships
Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed with IFPRI and Mekelle
University, and partnerships were built from that.
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