Agricultural research and development in the drylands of Ethiopia

Photo credit: ICRISAT

(L-R) ICRISAT Principal Scientist and country representative Dr KPC Rao; ICRISAT Director General Dr David Bergvinson; EIAR Director General Dr Fentahun Mengistu; ICRISAT’s Director for Strategic Marketing & Communication Ms Joanna Kane-Potaka, and an EIAR staff at a meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo: EIAR

Priority investments set for agriculture in the drylands of Ethiopia

New approaches and priority international investments have been agreed for agricultural research and development in the drylands of Ethiopia. This comes from a series of strategy meetings between the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Four areas with greatest opportunities have been identified: intensification of legumes for better human and environmental health; ; expanding  cereal production  by promoting  the industrial potential of sorghum and other millets, including tef; scaling up of watershed management for more intensive agriculture;  and new approaches to help farmers manage climate variability.

“These identified  opportunities can only be tackled through partnership at all levels on the value chain and making sure each step on this vertical chain has what it needs to act,” said Dr Fentahun Mengistu the Director General of EIAR.

Read the full article: ICRISAT