Nation Allocates 60 Mil USD To Purchase Additional Agrochemicals for Current Harvest Season

Addis Ababa August 8/2022/ENA/ The Ministry of Agriculture has announced that a budget of more than 60 million USD has been allocated to purchase additional agrochemicals for this year's harvest season.

The procurement has been well underway in order to mitigate the shortages of agrochemicals that might encounter during the season.

State Ministry of Agriculture, Sofia Kassa told ENA that agrochemical inputs are crucial to improving agricultural production and productivity.

Hence, according to the demands of regional states, the procurement of chemicals has been well underway for the harvest season of 2014/2015, she said.

The process of purchasing the chemicals for the upcoming harvest season is undertaken through Agricultural Works Corporation and the Oromia Federation, she added.

Though agrochemicals have already been purchased earlier based on the demands of regional states, currently additional purchase is well underway in order to prevent shortages of chemicals for the harvesting season.  

According to her, the chemicals will soon be distributed in a very short period of time.

Due to the global price hike in the international market, there was fear that agricultural fertilizers would be in short supply, however, some 12.8 million quintals of fertilizer was purchased, she said.

According to the state Minister, 96 percent of the total fertilizer purchased has already been distributed across the country.

She further said that in a bid to avoid a shortage of fertilizer in the crop season of 2015/16, the ministry will soon start to collect the need assessment of regional states and start the procurement process in a short period of time.