Ministry Working to cultivate Over 13 Million Hectare Land in Crop Season

Addis Ababa July 18/2022/ENA/ The Ministry of Agriculture said that it is working to cover some 13.4 million hectares of cultivated land with crop in 2022/2023 crop season.

Briefing journalists today, State Minister of Agriculture, Meles Mekonnen said that the ministry has been working to cover 13.4 million hectares of cultivated land in this rainy season, expecting some 400 million quintals of crop production in 2022/2023 harvest seasons.

Some 6.28 million hectares of land are being prepared with cluster farming to increase production and productivity, he added.

The state minister stated that 55 percent of the total cultivated land (6.6 million hectare) has been covered with seeds so far, he stated.

He noted that as part of efforts to increase productivity of crops, over 922 thousand quintals of variety of select seeds have been readied for farmers for Meher season, of which 664,842 quintal of the seed has been distributed to farmers so far.

Of 15.2 million quintals of fertilizer distributed to farmers’ cooperatives and unions, 8.2 million quintals have already been distributed to farmers, it was indicated.

The government has subsidized 15 billion birr for the purchase of fertilizer, he underscored.

As regards agricultural mechanization, the ministry plans to cultivate 5 million hectares of farmland with tractors this Meher season, he noted.

According to him,  some 2.2 million hectares of land have been cultivated with tractors so far, providing over 1000 tractors to farmers this year.