Ethiopia’s Enhanced Wheat Productivity Promising for Eastern Africa: FAO Coordinator

Addis Ababa October 24/2022 (ENA) The significantly increased production of wheat in Ethiopia is promising and the country can provide its best practice to other countries in the region, FAO Coordinator in Djibouti Fallou Guèye said.

The eastern Africa region is drought prone due to climate change and has recently witnessed drought, flood, and locust infestation.

Meanwhile, the region which is heavily dependent on imported food staff is affected by the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, FAO Coordinator in Djibouti Fallou Guèye said that the eastern Africa region faces food insecurity.

He lauded Ethiopia’s commitment to scaling up agricultural productivity, especially wheat production.

According to him, Ethiopia can serve as an example for other countries towards ensuring food security.

“Ethiopia has increased its production of wheat significantly despite the constraints the agricultural sector is facing. I think this is very promising and since Ethiopia is in the heart of the horn of Africa and the headquarter of African Union, I think Ethiopia has the know-how, technology that can help to provide assistance to other countries of the region so that they can may be tackle self-sufficient in other cereals. Wheat is in Ethiopia but other countries can also increase the production of millet, sorghum, and maize so that the region as a whole can be self-sufficient in cereal production,” Guèye elaborated.

The Coordinator stated that the government of Ethiopia has given due emphasis to boost productivity by introducing technology, improving human capacity, and investing.

“Other countries can learn a lot from Ethiopia because I know that Ethiopia has established an agency for transforming agriculture, which is providing decisive support that the farmers in Ethiopia can produce very efficiently, in a sustainable manner. I think other countries of the region can learn a lot from the experience of Ethiopia in putting in place the infrastructure in terms of institutions, human capacity and all the investment that is required,” he emphasized.

Furthermore, Guèye pointed out there is need to also focus on utilizing the untapped potential of livestock and fishery.