Posted on :Monday , 16th December 2019

The Government of Ethiopia in partnership with the EU, Denmark, and the Netherlands, has launched the Agricultural Commercialization Cluster (ACC) program.

The program to be implemented with close to EUR 100 million in funding from the European Union, Denmark, and Netherlands, will benefit five million Ethiopian smallholder farmers.

President Sahle-Work Zewde, Ambassador of the EU Johan Borgstam, Ambassador of Denmark Karin Poulsen and CEO of the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) Khalid Bomba attended the launch of the program.

President Sahle-Work highlighted the importance of the agriculture sector for the development of the country and called for more works to improve the sector. The ATA has spent the last two years testing and ramping up the clustering approach on farmland throughout the country. There are now 1.3 million farmers organized in 30,000 clusters across Ethiopia.

“Each cluster is planting improved seeds at the same time using the same agro-ecologically specific fertilizers, benefiting from the same technical support and harvesting their crops with the same machinery,” Khalid Bomba said. (FBC)

Ethiopia wants short-term technical training from the German State of Baden-Wurttemberg in order to promote technology and innovation, Science and Innovation Minister Getahun Mekuria said.

Opening the Ethiopia-Baden-Wurttemberg Economic Forum in Addis Ababa this week, the minister said increasing production and productivity with the support of technology is important to ensure economic growth.

“We need to increase the revenue obtained from agriculture, service, and manufacturing sectors through technology,” he added.

Baden Wurttemberg State Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing Minister, Nicole Hoffmeister said on her part Africa is a continent of opportunities and increasing strategic importance for the state.