Ethiopia Attains Significant Progress towards Achieving Food security, Says Prime Minister Abiy 

Addis Ababa, November 5/2024 (ENA) Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in his remarks to World Without Hunger Conference, revealed that Ethiopia has made significant progress towards achieving food security for all its citizens.

Over the past six years, Ethiopia’s focus on agricultural transformation and productivity has enabled the East African nation to double its cultivated land, the Prime Minister indicated.

And he added that: “Oour emphasis on high value industrial crops is yielding promising outcomes. We have made significant gains in drought resistant crops like wheat, teff   maize and sorghum.”

However, Premier Abiy noted that ongoing challenges persist throughout the Ethiopian food system, spanning production, distribution and consumption.

Production diversity and productivity are constrained by limited access to essential inputs, including fertilizers, seeds and modern agricultural technologies, he indicated.

Additionally, the Prime Minister highlighted population growth and agricultural intensification that have led to soil erosion, land degradation and deforestation over time.

Responding to these issues, Abiy stressed the need for reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emission while simultaneously building resilience to ongoing climate change and extreme weather events.

To this effect, the Prime Minister pointed out Ethiopia’s remarkable achievements through the Green Legacy Imitative (GLI).

“Transformative initiatives such as our Green Legacy program, launched in 2019 aimed at combating climate change and enhancing agricultural productivity. To date, we have planted 40 billion seedlings, with a target of 50 billion by 2026 expanding our forest cover by more than 6 percent within five years.”

 

This has helped restore our ecosystem and improve soil fertility, creating better conditions for sustainable agriculture, Abiy explained.

He further added Ethiopia’s strategic focus on wheat production marks a significant achievement through expanded irrigated farming and modernizing agricultural practices.

Ethiopia produced 230 million quintals of wheat in the past year, the Premier indicated.

“Of this irrigated wheat alone contributed 107 million quintals cultivated across 3 million hectares of land. These off season interventions have been pivotal to our success in building a resilient food system that also requires integrating agriculture with industry to maximize value,” he elaborated.

Integrated agro industrial parks play a key role by providing processing facilities, storage and market access, transforming raw products into high value goods for local and global markets, PM Abiy stated.

The nation’s investments in these spheres have also  reduced post harvest laws by 30 percent  and boosted farmers’ incomes by 20 percent and created thousands  of jobs, he indicated.

Despite inflation, economic volatility and global uncertainty, the Prime Minister said we have been making consistent efforts to reduce the national poverty.

In doing so, the Premier reaffirmed Ethiopia’s commitment to expanding agro-industrialization and implementing inclusive policies that promote equitable progress for all segments of society.

The World Without Hunger Conference being undertaken in Ethiopia, is seeing participation from Heads of State, Ministers, UN agencies, financial institutions, the private sector, and civil society, all committed to addressing global food insecurity, it was learned.