Agricultural Dev’t Activities Undertaken Over Past Three years Encouraging: Agriculture Minister

The efforts carried out over the past three years to ensure food security, import substitution and job creation by expediting the development of agricultural sector is encouraging, Minister of Agriculture, Girma Amante said.

The Minister made the remark at the 2nd Oromia Agricultural Transformation Council meeting held today in the presence of Oromia Regional State Chief Administrator Shimelis Abdissa, Minister of Agriculture, Girma Amante, university presidents and researchers among others.

During the occasion, the minister said the success registered in various agriculture sectors in Oromia regional state need to be further strengthened and expended in all parts of the country.

He added that the success we have achieved so far is due to the strong leadership and feasible systems developed at the federal and regional levels.

He noted that recently ministers of four African countries visited Ethiopia to see the progress made in agriculture sector and share best experience.

This success should continue well, he said, adding that the work done in the past three years to ensure mass production, food security, imports substitution and job creation for youth in the agricultural sector is encouraging.

“If we work together with our strength and knowledge, we can make our agricultural work successful, Girma added.

Shimilis Abdissa on his part said although positive results have been obtained in agriculture sectors over the past years, agricultural mechanization, rural finance, supply of inputs and commercialization among others are need due attention.

To bring about the desired results in the sector, scientific research must also be consistent with the farmer's knowledge, he said.

He further explained that if we cannot bring the scientific research that our agriculture needs, it is impossible to get out of the trap of poverty with the usual way of farming.

This will require us to coordinate the knowledge and experience of higher educational institutions and agricultural research centers to achieve greater success in the future, he added.

Shimelis stressed that all concerned bodies should exert maximum efforts to strengthen the achievement obtained so far and work on issues that need attention for agricultural transition.

The Oromia Agricultural Transformation Council was established last year with a view to promoting productivity by modernizing the sector through cluster farming.

Among the initiatives thus far carried out by council includes the production of wheat malt barley, dairy, rice ,tea, coffee, banana, and avocado as well as cattle breeding and poultry through cluster farming system.

The meeting examined the performance of the transformation council and put direction for the implementation of agricultural initiatives and implement new initiatives.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency