Over 42% of Land Covered with Crops in Summer Season Harvested: Ministry of Agriculture

Addis Ababa (ENA) December 5/2022  Ministry of Agriculture announced that more than 42 percent of the 13.4 million hectares of land covered by crops during the summer season have been harvested.

Ministry of Agriculture  Crop Development Head, Esayas Lema told ENA the nation expects  to produce 400 million quintal of various crops during this season.

He said that 5.8 million of the 13.4 million hectares of land covered with seeds have so far been harvested with the help of modern and traditional equipments.

The introduction of modernization to the process of agricultural activities, including agricultural mechanization machines and cluster farming coupled with better preparation and favorable climate condition are improving the production process and are expected to yield produces more than planned, it was indicated.

According to Esayas, the government is supporting farmers with agricultural mechanization machines such as tractors and combine harvesters as well as the cultivation of  six million hectares of land under the cluster farming system.

He believes that the country will get more produce than the plan as a result of better preparation and favorable climate in the process.

Stating that six million hectares of land have been cultivated under cluster farming, Esayas said the number of crops included into the cluster farming raised to 10 this year to increase production and productivity of agricultural products.

Noting that the use of modern technology is also improving and about 3 million hectares of land have been cultivated with tractors, he said modern harvesting machines have been put to work in a better way than last year to reduce the loss of production during crop harvesting.

Production loss is decreasing every year, Esayas said adding that various awareness-raising activities have been done especially for the farmers to reduce production loss during harvesting and storage until it is marketed and good results are being achieved.

The government has allowed a large number of combiners to be brought in and used by associations duty-free and that achieved good results in the last two years.

Farmers should strengthen their efforts to save their produce from waste by cleaning both traditional and modern warehouses, he recommended.

He further called on stakeholders to do their part to achieve the goal of self-sufficiency in crop production as a country.