Agriculture Ministry to Use 1.8 Million Quintals of Lime in Rainy Season

Addis Ababa February 10/2021 (ENA) Ministry of Agriculture disclosed today that 1.8 million quintals of agricultural lime would be used on 63,000 hectares of farmland in the upcoming rainy season.

The ministry revealed that increase in acidity of farmlands has become a bottleneck in  enhancing agricultural productivity.

On a half-day consultation workshop today, Agriculture State Minister Sani Redi said the acidic nature of agricultural lands in the country has been a challenge to productivity.

Acidic soil has negatively affected the country's effort toward ensuring food security as the country loses millions of quintals of grains every year as a result, he added.

Agricultural lime is the major and most widely used treatment for acidic soil.

However, the state minister said that producing lime and transporting it from the production area to farmers is a difficult task, and the financial limitation of farmers to buy it is another challenge.

Ministry of Agriculture Soil Fertility Improvement Director, Tefera Solomon said out of the total 36 million hectares of arable land in Ethiopia 3.7 million hectares is severely acidic.

The acidity in soil decreases the productivity of fertilizer by 43.5 percent, according to the director.

Tefera stated that the acidity of soil has been highly observed on the farmlands of north western, western and southern parts of the country.