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Some 82 metric tonnes of haricot bean “Basic Seed”
harvested in December 2007 in a joint programme by
Melkassa Agricultural Research Center (MARC) and
USAID’s Agribusiness and Trade Expansion Programme (ATEP);
will be planted in July this year to harvest a
further 2,000 metric tonnes increase in December
2008. In a bid to fill the haricot bean “Basic Seed”
shortfall in Ethiopia, the joint programme will
then, after MARC certifies it, distribute the seed
to 15,000 farmers who will develop 20, 000hct of
land during the 2009 rainy season to cultivate the
haricot bean.
The programme partners thus expect the crop harvest
to be 36,000 metric tonnes almost after a year, and
it will be sold at 450 dollars a tonne, generating a
total of 16.2 million dollars in rural farm incomes.
The partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
in November 2007 with objectives that include
developing improved access and availability of seeds
to farmers through the mechanism of trials, official
variety registry, and subsequent retail sales.
ATEP also provided MARC – the main implementing
organization of the Ethiopian Institute of
Agricultural Research (EIAR) – 14,500 dollars in
Technology Fund Grant to establish an official
high-purity “Basic Seed” crop of Haricot beans,
according to a publication by USAID.
The 82 metric tonnes of “Basic Seed” was sold to the
Ethiopian seed Enterprise, farmers’ cooperatives
unions, selected NGOs and leading exporters for 400
Br a quintal, and it is from these bodies the
farmers get the seed for the current rainy season.
“Currently, seed found in the hands of the farmer is
over used and the yield is minimal. It takes between
three to five years to register specialized seeds
that come from foreign markets,” Eskinder Kebede,
USAID-ATEP Coordinator told Fortune.
This is a too long and difficult process for
small-scale farmers who do not have the means to
import what they need by themselves, according to
him.
FAO/WFP crop and food security assessment in January
2008 shows that in 2007 meher season, 97.7
pc of all seeds used were local seeds carried over
from the previous harvest by the farmers themselves,
following the traditional, on-farm selection
process. Farmers identify the next year’s seed
stock while it is still maturing in the field, and
give it special protection. They might also buy from
preferred seed stocks kept by other farmers in the
same locality.
“It is an undeniable fact that there is a gap of
30,000 metric tonnes in basic seed production.
Concerning imported seed registration, there is no
discrepancy between the mechanized farmers and small
scale farmers,” Acting Director of Crop Protection
Department with EIAR, Bedada Girma (PhD) told
Fortune.
If the seed is verified by experts the process of
registration does not exceed a year, but when the
seed is new, the process can take up to three to
five years, the coordinator explained EIAR was
established in 1966 to secure self-sufficiency
through increased productivity and production of
cereals, pulses, oil crops, vegetables and fruits.
It is also expected to promote export commodities by
improving the quality and quantity of coffee, tea,
sugar, cotton and other industrial crops along with
those already mentioned.
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