Agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy. This particular sector determines the growth of all other sectors and consequently the whole national economy. It constitutes over 50% of the gross domestic product (GDP), accounts for over 85% of the labour force and earns over 90% of the foreign exchange [ 2 ].
What is the role of Agriculture in the economy of Ethiopia?
Role Agriculture in Ethiopian economy. Agriculture is the mainstay of the Ethiopian economy, contributing 41.4% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), 83.9% of the total exports, and 80% of all employment in the country (Matousa, Todob, & Mojoc, 2013).
Why do farmers live in the lowlands of Ethiopia?
In Ethiopia’s lowlands, for example, the presence of malaria kept farmers from settling in many areas. Most agricultural producers are subsistence farmers with small holdings, often broken into several plots. Most of these farmers lived in the Ethiopian Highlands, mainly at elevations of 1,500 to 3,000 meters.
What are the advantages of Ethiopia?
Ethiopia has competitive advantages in agriculture and agro-processing and sugar owing to the country’s favorable climatic conditions and types of soil suitable for the production of a variety of crops. The conditions are suitable for growing major food crops such as cereals, pulses, and oilseeds.
What percentage of Ethiopia’s land area is under cultivation?
The hilly land has led to extensive terracing in some parts of the country. Of Ethiopia’s total land area of 1,221,480 square kilometers, the government estimated in the late 1980s that 15 percent was under cultivation and 51 percent was pasture.
What is the role of agriculture in Ethiopian economy?
Role Agriculture in Ethiopian economy Agriculture is the mainstay of the Ethiopian economy, contributing 41.4% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), 83.9% of the total exports, and 80% of all employment in the country (Matousa, Todob, & Mojoc, 2013).
Why is agriculture the backbone of our economy?
It forms the basis for food and nutrition security and provide raw materials for industrialization. These are important factors that allow progress to take place in the society,” Duterte said during a gathering of agricultural sectors’ stakeholders lead by the Department of Agriculture Tuesday.
Why Ethiopia has a great potential for agriculture?
Ethiopia has great agricultural potential because of its vast areas of fertile land, diverse climate, generally adequate rainfall, and large labor pool. Despite this potential, however, Ethiopian agriculture has remained underdeveloped.
What is the main source of economy in Ethiopia?
agricultureEthiopia’s economy is based on agriculture, which accounts for 46% of GDP and 85% of total employment. Note: Top 3 trade partners are calculated by imports + exports.
What is the backbone of agriculture?
Women are the “backbone” of agriculture across the world, according to the Director-General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Why is agriculture important to the economy?
Agriculture, food, and related industries contributed $1.055 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, a 5.0-percent share. The output of America’s farms contributed $134.7 billion of this sum—about 0.6 percent of GDP.
How is agriculture in Ethiopia?
Overview. Ethiopia is endowed with abundant agricultural resources and has diverse agro-ecological zones. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. The Government of Ethiopia (GOE) has identified key priority intervention areas to increase productivity of smallholder farms and expand large-scale commercial farms.
What is agriculture system in Ethiopia?
The two dominant agricultural systems in Ethiopia are the mixed agriculture of the highlands, where both crops and livestock production are integrated, and pastoralism in the lowlands. The mixed agriculture exhibits several subsystems.
What is the factor affecting of agricultural development in Ethiopia?
The most common factors are lack of more recently introduced improved seeds, initial capital for investment, loss of cropland, labor, pesticides, invasive alien species, farm storage techniques, methods of small scale irrigation, and religious and cultural challenges.
Why agricultural sectors are dominant for Ethiopian economy rather than other sectors?
Ethiopia has great agricultural potential because of its vast areas of fertile land, diverse climate, generally adequate rainfall, and large labor pool.
What is Ethiopia’s biggest industry?
Trade. Ethiopia’s exports are almost entirely agricultural. Coffee is the primary foreign-exchange earner; other exported products include khat, hides and skins, live animals, oilseeds, and gold.
What are the three major economic services of Ethiopia?
The structure of the economy, in general, is decomposed into the three main sectors: the primary- agricultural sector, the secondary-industrial (manufacturing) sector and the tertiary-service sector.
What is the agricultural production of Ethiopia?
Agriculture in Ethiopia is the foundation of the country’s economy, accounting for half of gross domestic product (GDP), 83.9% of exports, and 80% of total employment. Ethiopia ‘s agriculture is plagued by periodic drought, soil degradation caused by overgrazing, …
What was the most important cash crop in Ethiopia in the 1970s?
The most important cash crop in Ethiopia was coffee . During the 1970s, coffee exports accounted for 50-60% of the total value of all exports, although coffee’s share dropped to 25% as a result of the economic dislocation following the 1974 revolution.
What happened in Eritrea in the 1970s?
Over the centuries, deforestation, overgrazing, and practices such as cultivation of slopes not suited to agriculture have eroded the soil, a situation that worsened considerably during the 1970s and 1980s, especially in Eritrea, Tigray, and parts of Gondar and Wollo.
How much food did Ethiopia receive during the drought?
Between 1984/85 and 1986/87, at the height of the drought, Ethiopia received more than 1.7 million tons of grain, about 14 percent of the total food aid for Africa. In addition, Ethiopia spent 341 million Birr on food purchases during the 1985-87 period.
What prevented the use of large parcels of potentially productive land?
Inaccessibility, water shortages, and infestations of disease-causing insects, mainly mosquitoes, prevented the use of large parcels of potentially productive land. In Ethiopia’s lowlands, for example, the presence of malaria kept farmers from settling in many areas.
How much of Ethiopia’s population depends on coffee?
Approximately 25% of Ethiopia’s population depended directly or indirectly on coffee for its livelihood. Ethiopia’s coffee is almost exclusively of the arabica type, which grows best at altitudes between 1,000 and 2,000 meters.
How much wheat does Ethiopia produce?
Ethiopia produced in 2018: 7.3 million tons of maize (17th largest producer in the world); 4.9 million tons of sorghum (4th largest producer in the world); 4.2 million tons of wheat; 2.1 million tons of barley (17th largest producer in the world); 1.8 million tons of sweet potato (5th largest producer in the world);
What is Ethiopia’s agriculture?
Ethiopia is endowed with abundant agricultural resources and has diverse ecological zones. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. The Government of Ethiopia (GOE) has identified key priority intervention areas to increase productivity of smallholder farms and expand large-scale commercial farms. Under the new administration, the GOE has renewed emphasis to develop the agriculture sector and ensure food security. Among the top priorities identified by the GOE include: small and large-scale irrigation development, financing agricultural inputs, increasing productivity of crops and livestock, improving agricultural production methods using mechanization, post-harvest loss reduction, developing a research-based food security system, and natural resource management. In addition, as part of the Home-Grown Economic Reform agenda, the government is looking to the agro-processing sector (also a best prospect sector detailed below) as one engine to spur future economic growth. With respect to increasing productivity, the GOE, alongside its international partners, has made a number of interventions to support the development of the agriculture sector.
What are the resources of Ethiopia?
Ethiopia is home to abundant livestock resources. There are opportunities to process livestock products for both local and export markets. Local demand for meat, milk and eggs is growing as the economy and population grow. This growth is expected to create investment and trade opportunities for certain commodities and open doors for veterinary and other livestock services. Potential opportunities exist for sales of U.S. livestock genetics and chicken meat.
What is the second most important sector in the country’s agriculture-based economy?
After livestock, grain production is the second most important sector in the country’s agriculture-based economy. It accounts for nearly 80 percent of the land under cultivation and employs 60 percent of the rural workforce, most of which work on less than one hectare of land. Grain yields are relatively low due to the country’s rugged topography, poor land management, small-scale landholdings, irregular rainfall, limited mechanization, and insufficient supplies of fertilizer and improved seed. The government and the international community are working together to address many of these challenges.
What is the largest livestock in Africa?
Ethiopia is home to one of the largest livestock populations in Africa. According to government statistics, there are approximately 50 million cattle, 50 million goats and sheep, plus an assortment of horses, donkeys, camels and chickens. The GOE, as part of its Livestock Master Plan (LMP), intends to transform this sector and increase production and exports of meat in order to generate foreign exchange. The LMP also calls for increases in dairy, broiler and egg production to satisfy increasing consumer demand for affordable animal proteins.
What percentage of Ethiopia’s GDP is agriculture?
Feed the Future Value Chain Activity. Ethiopia’s economy is dependent on agriculture, which accounts for 40 percent of the GDP, 80 percent of exports, and an estimated 75 percent of the country’s workforce.
What is feed the future?
FEED THE FUTURE: Our assistance helps farmers improve agricultural production for both household consumption and market sales, helping families earn more while improving their diets. These efforts are aligned with and support the Government of Ethiopia’s Agricultural Growth Program, which aims to improve agricultural productivity and increase market opportunities for smallholder farmers. Through the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative, we also work with chronically vulnerable households to graduate them from food insecurity by increasing income generation opportunities for farmers. In lowland areas of Ethiopia, we support pastoralists to benefit from livestock market value chains and new economic opportunities through entrepreneurship and employment opportunities. All of these activities decrease dependence on food assistance while transforming the economic potential of Ethiopia’s rural population.
What are the three main constraints that the government needs to address to enhance investment into the domestic food industry?
There are three main constraints that the government needs to address to enhance investment into the domestic food industry: Unleash the potential of the private sector. Promote access to finance and mobile money solutions. Promote market integration, commercialization, and scale.
What are some examples of weak supply chains?
Currently, weak supply chains, particularly for non-export commodi ties like teff, wheat, and maize need improvement, for example, support of farmers’ groups to improve storage, quality, marketing, and linkage with the food industry.
What is the performance of the state-dominated sugar sector?
Performance of the state-dominated sugar sector. A dominant presence of state-owned enterprises and state-owned banks led to huge productivity losses and creates distortions for private finance and investments. The financial sector is dominated by two state-owned banks with about half of total banking sector assets.
How can the government support investment?
The government can support investments with better access to land, land leasing procedures, and industry standards. For sophisticated value chains in horticulture, attraction of foreign investors to improve scale and competition is crucial. The success of the flower industry is a good example.
What is urban consumer?
Urban consumers—a rising middle class—buy imported food products at relatively high prices. To satisfy this growing domestic demand and to diversify exports, one would expect a significant supply reaction with increasing investments in the food industry. However, this has not happened at scale yet.
Is Ethiopia’s trade surplus going away?
Without higher growth in the domestic food industry, the trade surplus will soon fade away even with further growing exports of raw products. First, Ethiopia needs to unleash the potential of the private sector.
Is Ethiopia an exporter?
Ethiopia is a net exporter of agriculture commodities. However, the low level of industrialized agriculture means that the country exports very little higher value processed food. Despite strong growth in manufacturing, agriculture remains the biggest export earner. Eighty percent of all export revenues of the country and 21 percent …
How much does agriculture contribute to Ethiopia’s economy?
revealed that agriculture contributes greatly in terms of export, employment, and . subsistence to the Ethiopian economy. It contributes 50 percent of GDP, 85 percent . of employment (the rural population of Ethiopia), 90 percent of earnings from .
What is the population of Ethiopia in 2007?
Demographically, the country is the second most populous country in Africa . after Nigeria. In 2007, Ethiopia had a total population of 79.22 million. The total . fertility rate of the country is 5.9 children per woman; 3.3 for urban and 6.4 for .
What are some of the most important crops in Africa?
Horticulture items (vegetables and fruits) like beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), . lemon, tomatoes, potatoes, banana, oranges, onion, mango, avocado, cabbages, . papaya, and garlic are also exported to different countries. In terms of livestock numbers, the country stands atop the list in Africa .
What percentage of the land is used by commercial farms?
commercial farms produce just 6 percent of food crops and 2 percent of the coffee . grown. These commercial farms use about 5 percent of the total cultivated land. Coffee, cotton, tea, fruits, and vegetables are the major crops grown by the few .
What is the mainstay of Ethiopia’s economy?
Agriculture is the mainstay of Ethiopian economy involving major source of employment and gross national product. By African, standard rural development programme has long history in Ethiopia. It has also enjoyed a considerable attention by the government.
What is the extent to which farmers adopt available innovations and the speed by which they do so?
The extent to which farmers adopt available innovations and the speed by which they do so determine the impact of innovations in terms of productivity growth. It is a common phenomenon that farmers like any other kind of entrepreneurs do not adopt innovations simultaneously as they appear on the market.
Is modem farming a source of agriculture?
Policy makers and donor agencies have so far been emphasized the use of modem farm technologies as a sole source of agricultural growth in Ethiopia. However, the cost of modern technologies is so prohibitive that few farmers in limited areas of the country are so far reached.
What is Ethiopia known for?
Ethiopia has much to offer to international tourists. It has unique historical and cultural heritages, magnificent scenery, surprisingly pleasant climate and religious, archeological, and historical places to visit. Ethiopia is a land of contrasts and extremes, a land of remote and wild places with a wide range of tourist attractions which have not yet been fully exploited. Among others, the main tourist attractions include about 7000 species of plants out of which 1100 are endemic; about 242 mammals out of which 23 are endemic; about 850 bird species, out of which 16 are endemic. As Ethiopia is also the cradle of mankind, there are a number of archeological sites.
How many sheep does Ethiopia have?
According to Central Statistics Agency (2008-2009), the country has 49 million heads of cattle, 17 million heads of sheep, 22 million heads of goats and 38 million chickens.
What are the mineral resources in Ethiopia?
Gold, tantalum, potash, platinum, marble, gem stone, etc. are among the minerals identified for future development. The Ministry of Mines and Energy is responsible for the processing of license application, regulation of mineral operations and the promotion of investment opportunities in the mining sector.
Where is Ethiopia coffee grown?
Coffee is grown over 600,000 hectares, the largest of these areas lie in the south and south western highlands of the country. More than 60% of Ethiopian coffee is produced as forest or semi-forest coffee. The four main coffee growing regions in Ethiopia are: Harrar, Ghimbi, Sidama /Yirgacheffe, and Jimma/Keffa.
Where is wheat grown in India?
Wheat and barley are mostly grown in the highlands and mid highland areas of the country main ly in Oromia (Bale and Arsi Zones) and some parts of Amhara (North Gondar and North Shewa) Regions.
Where is maize grown in Ethiopia?
There are huge tracts of land in all regions suitable for maize farming. Maize is mainly produced in SNNPR and Oromia regions where there are about 1.77 million hectares under cultivation.
Is Ethiopia a good country for agro processing?
Ethiopia has tremendous potential for investment in agro-processing. Many of its agricultural products can be exported without being processed, while others can be processed before they are brought to domestic and foreign markets. The government has also placed a priority on the export of processed products, which involves and stimulates the growth of the agro-processing sector.
Sectoral Overview
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Ethiopia has about 51.3 million hectares of arable land. However, just over 20% is currently cultivated, mainly by the smallholders. Over 50% of all smallholder farmers operate on one (1) hectare or less. Smallholder producers, which are about 12 million households, account for abou…
Key Agricultural Sectors
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Coffee & tea; Ethiopia has a great potential for coffee production, thanks to the country’s abundant rainfall, optimum temperatures, conducive altitude and fertile soil. Over 60% of Ethiopian coffee is produced as forest coffee, and therefore the use of fertilizers is usually unnecessary as the falling leaves enrich forest floor. Also, the use of chemicals such as pesticid…
Ethiopia’s Investment Potential
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Ethiopia’s economy is growing with a wide range of opportunities for investment. However, Ethiopia remains an unexploited market and untapped for investors. Out of the total investment projects approved between 1992 and 2012, FDI’s share accounted for about 15.8%, with China, India, Germany, Italy, Sudan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the UK, Israel, Canada and the US bein…
Ethiopia’s Competitive Market Access
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Apart from a population of around 94 million people (2013) positioning Ethiopia as potentially one of Africa’s largest domestic markets, the above sectors are equally suitable for the fast-growing export market. By virtue of being a COMESA member, bringing together 19 countries with a total population of 400 million, Ethiopia also has preferential market access to these countries. The c…
Summary
Agriculture in Ethiopia is the foundation of the country’s economy, accounting for half of gross domestic product (GDP), 83.9% of exports, and 80% of total employment.
Ethiopia’s agriculture is plagued by periodic drought, soil degradation caused by overgrazing, deforestation, high levels of taxation and poor infrastructure (mak…
Overview
Agriculture accounted for 50% of GDP, 83.9% of exports, and 80% of the labor force in 2006 and 2007, compared to 44.9%, 76.9% and 80% in 2002–2003, and agriculture remains the Ethiopian economy’s most important sector. Ethiopia has great agricultural potential because of its vast areas of fertile land, diverse climate, generally adequate rainfall, and large labor pool. Despite this potential…
Land use
Of Ethiopia’s total land area of 1,221,480 square kilometers, the government estimated in the late 1980s that 15 percent was under cultivation and 51 percent was pasture. It was also estimated that over 60 percent of the cultivated area was cropland. Forestland, most of it in the southwestern part of the country, accounted for 4 percent of the total land area, according to the govern…
Land reform
Until the 1974 revolution, Ethiopia had a complex land tenure system, which some have described as feudal. In Wollo Province, for example, there were an estimated 111 types of land tenure. The existence of so many land tenure systems, coupled with the lack of reliable data, made it difficult to give a comprehensive assessment of landownership in Ethiopia, as well as depresse…
Agricultural production
The effect of the Derg’s land reform program on food production and its marketing and distribution policies were among two of the major controversies surrounding the revolution. Available data on crop production show that land reform and the various government rural programs had a minimal impact on increasing the food supply, as production levels displayed considerable fluctuations and low growth rates at best. Since the fall of the Derg, there have bee…
Agricultural Goals: 2011-2015
The Ethiopian Government set up the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) to reach certain goals between 2011 and 2015. Primarily, growth in the market should reach 8.1 percent per year during this time frame. This includes: bolstering smallholder farmers’ productivity, enhancing marketing systems, upgrading participation of private sector, increasing volume of irrigated land a…
Traditional farming tools in Ethiopia
Almost all farming tools in Ethiopia are traditional and made from different types of wood. These tools includes sickle, pick axe, plough shaft, ploughshare, plow, beam and animal force as a machines. The plough shaft, beam and ploughshare are made of wood and the sickle, pick axe, plow are made of metal. Ploughing the land using these tools is ambiguous and time-consuming.
Almost all farming tools in Ethiopia are traditional and made from different types of wood. These tools includes sickle, pick axe, plough shaft, ploughshare, plow, beam and animal force as a machines. The plough shaft, beam and ploughshare are made of wood and the sickle, pick axe, plow are made of metal. Ploughing the land using these tools is ambiguous and time-consuming.
Government marketing operations
Private traders and the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC), established in 1976, marketed Ethiopia’s agricultural output. The AMC was a government agency whose objective was to influence the supply and price of crops. It purchased grain from peasant associations at fixed prices. The AMC set quotas of grain purchases to be delivered by peasant associations and cooperatives and also bought from private wholesalers, who were required to sell half of their pu…