Agriculture Still Priority in Govt’s Economic Policy: PM

Addis Ababa May 27/2019 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the agricultural sector will remain a priority in the government’s economic policy to attain Ethiopia’s structural economic transformation. 

Addressing the closing meeting of agricultural leaders and experts at Adama yesterday, Abiy stated that the government has been undertaking numerous activities to consolidate the role of agriculture as the engine of the economy.

As Ethiopia is endowed with abundant agricultural resources and has diverse ecological zones, the nation has been working to put in place a sound policy, strategy, strong institutions and better budget for the sector, the premier said.

According to him, Ethiopia has embarked on agricultural economic transformation in order to ensure stabile development in the country.  

The PM pledged to particularly allocate huge amount of budget to the agricultural sector.

Small-scale irrigation alone, which is considered as vital sub-sector to boost productivity, will receive 20 billion birr in upcoming Ethiopian fiscal year, he stated.

Furthermore, Abiy emphasized on agricultural inputs and logistics, adding that the government has given dual attention to solve the problems which are the  major bottlenecks in sector.

The Government of Ethiopia (GOE) has identified increasing productivity of small holding farmers and expanding of large-scale commercial farms as two of its priority areas.

The two-day national agricultural development mobilization which aimed at consolidating the role of agricultural development was held under the theme “the Role of Leadership for Agricultural Transformation”.