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Source : Country Information Brief, FAO June 1995

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND DIVERSIFICATION PROGRAMMES
Food and Cash Crops

Objectives
A dismal performance of grain production in the latter half of the 1980's is in sharp contrast to the stated targets of the Ten Year Perspective Plan. The impact of natural disasters notwithstanding, the policy framework provided by the previous government substantially contributed to the poor performance. The attempt to enhance socialist production relations in the form of promoting producers cooperatives and villagization as well as socializing agricultural markets stifled the incentive to produce.
The broad objectives of the TGE is to ensure adequate food security and increase foreign exchange earnings. With improvements in international competitiveness, the supply response of export crops such as coffee, pulses, oilseeds is expected to be strong.
The Agricultural Development Program (ADP) has identified the following programme elements to increase food and cash crop production:
- Support to the use of vertisol management practices in the black soil areas of all regions
- Promote drought tolerant land races for arid and semi arid zones
- Promote dry land farming system for arid and semi-arid zones
- Promote legume (pulse) crop production as integral part of conservation activities by increasing the supply of Rhizobium inoculum
- Promote indigenous farmers knowledge of crop production in all regions
- Encourage the production and diversification of export crops in all regions
- Support to coffee production and marketing
- Support to washed coffee processing techniques
- Encourage the production and diversification of industrial crops in all regions.


Review of Crop Production
(a) Cash Crops

Since 1974, domestic production of cash crops has grown slower than total demand, resulting in domestic shortages and in sluggish export growth. In particular, a sharp decline in non-coffee exports has resulted in rising share of coffee in total exports. The following is a brief review of the major export crop's in Ethiopia.

Coffee

Ethiopia produces one of the best highland coffee in the world. The country, known to be original home of coffee Arabica, mainly produces sun-dried unwashed coffee types known in the world market for their flavor, good body, acidity and diversity of taste.
There is no reliable estimate of coffee crop area, yields, total output and domestic consumption. According to the estimates of World Bank (1987), Ethiopia produces about 140,000 tons of coffee in a bad year and up to 180,000 tons in an exceptionally good year; production in a normal year would be about 160,000 ton. The total area under planted coffee is estimated about 450 thousand hectares with additional 150 thousand hectares under wild coffee in natural forests which are only partially exploited. Roughly 50 per cent of the total output is consumed domestically, and the balance is exported.
Coffee grows in almost all regions of Ethiopia, but more than 80 per cent of the marketable production comes from what is known as forest coffee, mostly from the regions of Keffa, Wellega, Gamo Gofa, Sidamo and Illubabor zones. The rest comes from coffee gardens found in Shoa and Hararge. Over 95 per cent is produced by private peasants and the rest by state farms.
Ethiopia exported 88,405 MT of coffee in 1980/81. The volume increased to 91,179 MT in 1983-84 and then declined significantly during the period 1984/85 -1985/86 owing to the drought. Export stagnated at 70 to 89 thousand tons between 1986/87 and 1989/90 and then plunged to a mere 32,240 MT in 1991/92 because of the civil strife.
The poor performance of the coffee sub-sector, apart from the effects of the drought and the war, was related to the overvaluation of the domestic currency and state-controlled marketing arrangement which resulted in low producer prices. In some areas, e.g. Hararghe and Sidamo, (a stimulant crop) replaced coffee production as the former fetched substantially higher prices than coffee. The financial returns from maize production were higher than coffee in many place, triggering a shift away from coffee production in many cases. (World Bank .1987) . The low international coffee price simply aggravated the problem of incentive.
Coffee export showed a marked recovery in 1992/93, a reflection of the prevailing peace and stability in the country as well as the devaluation and other measures introduced to bolster foreign exchange earnings . Nonetheless, the volume of export was still 26 per cent less than the amount exported in 1983/84
Despite the weak performance, there has been an increased reliance on coffee exports since the coming to power of the military regime in 1974. Its share increased from about 40 per cent before 1974 to about 60 per cent during the period 1983/84 - 1992/93. This is largely due to the sharp deterioration in the performance of other export items.

Pulses and Oilseeds

At least seven types of pulses ( horse beans, chick peas, haricot beans, field peas, lentils, soyabean and vetch) and seven types of oilseeds (noug, linseed, sesame, fenugreek, rapeseed, castor seeds and groundnuts) are produced in all regions of Ethiopia. Pulses and oilseed, account for about 10.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent of the total food grain production area. Pulse yields, are estimated at about 9.6 kg/ha and oilseeds 4 kg/ha . Both area cultivated and production of pulses and oilseed have tended to decline over the last two decades . Domestic demand is high as pulses are directly consumed food lord . Similarly many oilseeds are consumed directly or processed into vegetable oil.
Pulses and oilseeds as well as oilseed cake played a key role, second only to coffee in Ethiopia's export in the early 1970s. For instance, in 1974/75, about 112,000 tons of pulses and 79,000 tons of oilseeds were exported. The volume of exports declined to just 26,000 and 6,000 tons in 1978/79, respectively. This was primarily because the peasants gave first priority to growing basic cereal staples after the land reform (March 1975) in order to meet their food needs. In addition an increase in domestic consumption as well as the higher profitability of cereal production reduced oilseeds and pulses exports (World Bank, 1987.).
Exports declined in 1991/92 to just 1,398 tons in the case of pulses and 176 tons for oilseeds due to the disruption by the war. No significant recovery was registered in 1992/93 as the corresponding figures stood at only 1,527 and 392 tons, respectively .

Cotton

Cotton farms in Ethiopia are of two types: large-scale state farms and traditional peasant farms. Large-scale cotton cultivation is carried out mainly in the Awash valley and in three minor areas, namely North Omo (southern Regions), Ababo (Gambella Region) and Gode (Ogaden Region). Cotton is produced with the help of irrigations in all cases except Ababo.
The state farms cultivated 35,741 hectares and produced 85,143 ton of seed cotton in 1985. Since 1985, however, the trend has been one of declining with cultivated area and production falling to 34,350 hectares and 44,000 tons by 1990. Cotton land under the state farms measured only 16,573 and 13,288 hectares due to the combined effect of the war and the new economic policy that gave back farm land to the local people on the ground that it was unfairly taken away by the former government. Cotton produced by the state farms is mainly used by the domestic textile industries.
Peasant cotton growing areas are generally situated at altitudes ranging from about 1,000 meters to 1,700 meters above sea level. The actual cultivated area is not known with certainty, but is roughly estimated to 42,000 hectares, producing 194,000 quintals of raw cotton. Peasant production is characterized by traditional technology with no access to improved seeds and chemicals. Almost all the cotton produced by the peasant sector is used by the craft industry. Spinning cotton into home-made yarn for making traditional fabric by weavers is an important historical tradition (Mulat & Bente, 1994).
In 1983/84, the country was able to export some 5,278 tons of cotton. Over the years exports tended to decline with the fall in the production of state farms. Cotton exports virtually ceased in 1991/92. About 10,000 tons of lint cotton was imported (through the USA's assistance) in 1992 to keep the textile mills operational (Mulat & Bente, 1994).

Sugar

Sugar cane is produced in the three sugar factories Wonji, Wonji Shoa and Metahara. The total cultivated area amounted to 14.9 thousand hectares and production 1.4 million tons in 1989/90. Production has tended to decline over the years, from 1.64 millions in 1983/84 to 1.4 million in 1989/90 . There are out growers of Sugar cane, contributing about 20 per cent of the Wonji Shoa sugar Enterprise (Dejene, 1994a).
Total domestic consumption and stocks of sugar and molasses in 1984/85 were 165.9 thousand tons and 47.5 thousand tons respectively. The implied per capita sugar consumption (including stocks) was 3.95 kg, one of the lowest in Africa. Per capita consumption has also been declining since 1980 (World Bank, 1987).
Ethiopia has been able to export some sugar and molasses by restricting domestic consumption. Between 10 and 13 million Birr worth of sugar and molasses (or 21.1 thousand MT and 45.5 thousand MT) was exported during the period 1983/84 and 1988/89. Exports have fallen sharply since 1990/91.

Tea

Tea is commercially grown on state farms (under Ministry of Coffee and Tea Development) Gumaro and Wushwush localities in the south-western part of Ethiopia. The total cultivated area is currently estimated at about 1,300 to 1,500 hectares.
Ethiopia is not a significant producer of tea. But production has rapidly expanded from 3 tons in 1974 to 2353 tons in 1992. Imports declined from a high of 2,793 MT in 1981 to 820 MT in 1990 (MOA, FPFSN, Sub-programme 3, 1993). Ethiopia could soon become self-sufficient in tea.

Tobacco

Tobacco is traditionally grown together with other crops as garden crop. Native tobacco has been used for snuffing, chewing and for pipe smoking ('gaya') in many places.
Tobacco is grown for commercial purposes by state-owned farms and by farmers around these farms. The National Tobacco and Matches Corporation (NTMC), which is renamed as National Tobacco Enterprise', has been given the mandate to organize tobacco production and processing in the country.
Three main types of commercial tobacco are produced in Ethiopia: Virginia, oriental and burley. Virginia accounts for a little more than 74 per cent of the total production, followed by oriental, 22 per cent, and barely, 4 per cent.
The principal cultivation areas have been northern Sidamo, Northern Shoa, and Hararghe. Commercial production is concentrated in Robi (North Shoa), Bilate, Awassa, Wolaita (Sidamo) and in Nura-Era (Hararghe). State farms in these areas produce about 500- 900 MT of cured leaves annually from about 2000 hectares of land. This together with the production of out growers, fulfils only 60 to 70 per cent of the cigarette manufacturing firm in Addis Ababa. The remaining 200 to 1200 tons of tobacco is imported every year (Debebe, et al., 1993). The Shoa-Robit plant of North Shoa gets over 90 per cent of its leaves from outgrows (Dejene, 1994b).

Chat

Chat is a mild stimulant crop cultivated in most of the Coffee growing regions, mainly Hararghe, Sidamo, Jimma, Kembata and Gurge. The young leaves are chewed for their stimulant effect.
Domestic consumption of chat is growing rapidly. This is reflected in the rising domestic prices. Chat is exported to neighboring countries such as Djibouti, Yemen and Somalia. Export prices have been rising since the mid-1970s (Ezekiel Gebissa, 1994). Both legal and illegal channels are used in the export trade. The volume of chat exports (official) varied between 711 and 2558 MT during the period 1983/84 to 1989/90. Exports declined sharply in 1991/92 but recovered slightly in 1992/93. Because of the high price,it is reported that chat is increasingly replacing coffee fields in many parts of the country. But there is no reliable estimate of land under chat cultivation. According to one study (Ezekiel Gebissa, 1994), approximately 10,000 square miles of land is used for chat cultivation in Hararghe alone. The cultivation of chat has been rapidly expanding to non-traditional areas in recent years.

Horticultural Crops

Horticultural crops, mainly fruits, vegetables and cut flowers, are grown on state farms and small private farms. State horticultural farms are organized under the Horticultural Development Enterprise (HDE) which cultivates about 6,600 hectares of irrigable land in the Awash valley (ONCCP/FAO, 1990). Small producers of horticultural crops are concentrated near cities, Rift valley areas and the Awash valley. There is no reliable estimate of the total area cultivated, but some reports estimate that about 124,000 hectares of land is used for the production of horticultural crops (MOA, FPFSN, Sub programme 2, 1993).
Fruits and vegetables produced by the state farms are exported by the state-owned marketing enterprise (ETFRUIT). The product is lifted by air to Europe. Private traders export horticultural crops produced by small farmers (mainly in Hararghe) to Djibouti by rail. The annual volume of exports during the period 1983/84 to 1989/90 stood at 7000 to 19,000 MT .
(b) Food Crops
Food crops in Ethiopia refer to cereals, pulses, oil seed, enset and some root and tuber crops. In this section a brief review of food crops is provided.

Teff

Teff is a staple food in most parts of Ethiopia. It is grown at an optimum altitude range of 1800 to 2200 meters. About 1.2 to 1.4 million hectares of teff (the largest proportion (27.6%) of the total cereal area) is annually cultivated, producing 1.0 to 1.2 million tons . The average yield has barely exceeded 10 quintals over the last decade and it has tended to vary closely with the weather condition. High market value and many other desirable characteristics, including higher nutritional value, low incidence of damage by insects, better adoption to drought and poor drainage and high straw value, have made teff attractive for cultivation. It is estimated that about 40 to 50 per cent of the natural fertilizer is used on teff ( FAO, 1992). The high proportion of fertilizer use, however, is not matched by increased use of improved seed. Less than 7,000 quintals of teff seeds were distributed by the Ethiopia Seed Enterprise (ESE) between 1985/86 and 1990/91, compared to over 100,000 quintals for wheat (MOA, FPFNS, sub-programme 2,1993).
Wheat
Wheat occupies between 600,000 to 722,000 hectares of land and the annual production is estimated at about 740,000 tons . This represents about 13.7 and 13.6 per cent of the total cereal cultivated area and production, respectively. It is well adopted to the higher altitudes of the Dega and Woina Dega regions. The major wheat producing areas are Arssi, Bale, Shoa and Gojam. Agricultural research in the country has focused on wheat as improved seeds of the same account for over 50 per cent of the total seeds distributed by the ESC. However, wheat yield has not shown much improvement, fluctuating between 10 and 13 quintals per hectare.
Wheat is mainly used for preparing bread. It is also the major crop processed by the grain mills in the country. Wheat products like flour, pasta, macaroni, bread and confectionary are popularly commercialized in Ethiopia.

Barley

Barley is grown as a 'meher' (main season) crop in the higher altitudes of Dega regions. It is grown mainly in Arssi, Bale, Shoa, Welo, Gojam and Gonder. It is also widely cultivated as a 'belg' crop in many areas. The annual cultivated area is estimated at 881,680 hectares and production at 999,610 tons, representing 18.7 per cent of the cultivated area and 18.3 per cent of the total cereal production. Average yield varies between 10 and 13 quintals per hectare.
Barley is used as food and raw material for brewing home-made alcoholic drinks. Beverage industries also use some 10,000 tons of barley per annum to prepare malt for breweries. (Kuma and Mekonnen, 1994)

Maize

Maize grows best in medium altitudes of the Woina Dega regions. Lowland types grow well below 1600 meters in the Kola regions. It is an important crop in South Shoa, Wellega, Gojam, Keffa, Sidamo and Illubabor. It occupies about 920,870 hectares of land (19.5% of the cereal area) and the annual production is estimated at 1,475,480 tons (27.0% of total cereal output). Maize is a staple food in the southern and western part of the country. Maize bread is not as popular as teff injera (kind of bread) or wheat bread in the urban areas.
Maize is one of the important improved seeds (next to wheat) distributed by the ESC. The average yield maize is also higher, at about 15-20 quintals per hectare in normal years and the response to fertilizer is quite high.

Sorghum

Sorghum grows in the highlands as well as in the lowlands, where rainfall is short and erratic. It is produced mainly in Hararghe, Wello, Shoa and Gonder. It is a staple food in the eastern and northern parts of the country.
The total cultivated area of sorghum is about 789,420 hectares and the annual production is about 1,003,430 tons. It constitutes about 16.7 per cent of the cereal cultivated area and 18.3 per cent of the total cereal production. Yield levels vary between 10 and 15 quintals per hectare in normal years.

Millet

Millet cultivation is practiced by farmers in the north, west and South of the country with semi-humid climates. The total area devoted to millet is only about 180,000 hectares (4% of the cereal area) and the annual production is estimated at 163,330 tons. Average yield has varied from 7.1 quintals in 1984/85 to 10.6 in 1987/88.

Enset

Enset is a traditional staple crop in the densely populated south and south-western part of Ethiopia. The root of the plant provides food in the form of starch and the stem is used to produce coarse fibre. Enset provides more amount of foodstuff per unit area than most cereals. It is estimated that 40 to 60 enset plants occupying 250-375 sq. meters can provide enough food for a family of 5 to 6 people.
Statistical information on area and production is not available. Rough estimates suggest that around 40,000 hectares of land are under enset. The plant, which is normally grown in the backyard of homesteads, was adversely affected by the villagisation policy of the previous government in the mid-1980s as the plants had to be abandoned when the families were forced to relocate their homes in the new villages.

Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato is grown in the Kola and Woina Dega regions. It is more tolerant to draught than most tropical root crops. It is popular among farmers in Hararghe because of its resistance to drought and higher yield potential. Other less important root crops are Cassava and Taro.
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