Smart approach helps to increase income of Ethiopian vegetable growers

Vegetables are important for the Ethiopian population. By eating vegetables they get down the necessary vitamins, anti-oxidants and minerals. But vegetables are also ideal for farmers: production time is short which means that they can acquire an income in a relatively short time.

Crop yields still too low

But vegetable cultivation is not yet very efficient. Crop yields are often low which results in a low income. Researchers of PPO are going to change this in the Smallveg programme, together with Plant Research International and LEI of Wageningen UR, and local partners. Their aim is to help farmers to reduce the cost price per kilogramme. This is not only good for farmers but also for consumers because it is making food more affordable.

This is why the research is focusing on the total vegetable chain, from seed through to trade chain, shop and consumer. Vegetable growers are small farmers with a land area of ¼ hectare to 1 hectare who are already selling their vegetables. The project is an initiative of the Dutch Embassy in Ethiopia and is financed from the budgets for development cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Successful method

The scientists are following a method that has already proven to be successful in other countries. They first map the current situation by finding answers to questions such as:

• How high is the production level?
• How much knowledge have farmers about vegetable cultivation?
• How does the market look like?
• How is produce transported to the shops?

The next step is to identify the bottlenecks, together with local stakeholders: farmers, trade, policy makers, advisors and scientists.

Together with the horticultural industry

This is followed by strong recommendations for the most urgent bottlenecks but other action points may follow as well. This depends on the outcome of the analysis in which the scientists are explicitly involving the horticultural industry such as suppliers, laboratories, seed companies, and mechanisation companies. They are also searching for partners that are already active in Ethiopia but which are not yet focusing on small farmers.

Important in this approach are the local model farms where the researchers are setting up demo fields on which the growers are closely following the instructions of the researchers. And these sites are monitored to see whether yields are indeed increasing.

Setting up a network of advisors

The researchers are not only focusing on growers but no less so on advisors. They are setting up a network with the advisors so that these can mutually support each other. And they are also developing internet applications for information exchange and for storing and sharing data.

Other Ethiopian vegetable cultivation regions will follow after a first start around the two small rural towns of Ziway and Meki