PROGRESS REPORT

34 PROGRESS REPORT PROGRAM LEVEL PROGRESS REPORT 35
Highlighted Deliverables
Since inception nearly four years ago, deliverables in the Agricultural Transformation Agenda have
made considerable progress towards addressing the critical bottlenecks hindering agricultural
growth and transformation. These deliverables can be categorized by program areas, focusing in
different Systems, Value Chains and Crosscutting verticals areas.
This section details the work and progress of each of these program areas, beginning witha
recap of several highlighted deliverables which have registered tremendous successes.
Among these are the early accomplishments toward increasing tef yields through an innovative
productivity enhancing package, and a state-of-the-art comprehensive soil mapping initiative.
More recently, the ATA and partners have developed and launched an input sales voucher
system as part of the overall strategy to strengthen Ethiopia’s rural financial sector. Just over
one year ago, another initiative was piloted to help smallholder farmers access best practice
agronomic information through an innovative, interactive agricultural hotline.
Soil: EthioSIS and
Fertilizer Blending
A variety of soil fertility issues have historically constrained the
potential of Ethiopia’s smallholder farmers. The lack of up-to-date
and comprehensive information on the country’s soil fertility
conditions has created additional challenges. As a result, for
nearly 40 years farmers have received a long-standing, blanket
recommendation to use DAP and urea fertilizers in equal amounts,
despite the great diversity of soil types, fertility status and agroecologies
across Ethiopia.
In order to analyze the specific nutrient needs of soils in all
locations, the Ethiopian Soil Information System (EthioSIS) project
was launched in 2012. A first-of-its-kind national initiative in Africa,
the effort uses remote sensing satellite technology and extensive
soil sampling to provide high-resolution fertility soil mapping for
each region. In addition, woreda level soil collection and mapping
has led to a survey of 455 woredas (65% of the agricultural
woredas in the country), including the whole of the Tigray, Amhara,
SNNP and Harari Regions as well as the Dire Dawa Administration.
Consequently, the soil fertility atlas and fertilizer recommendations
have already been published for Tigray. Data collection has been
completed and analysis is in progress for Amhara and SNNP, with
soil fertility atlases expected to be published for both regions by
the end of December 2015 and for all other regions in the country
by June 2016.
Through this work, soils in many parts of Ethiopia have been found
to be deficient in one or more essential nutrients, namely nitrogen,
phosphorous, potassium, sulphur, boron, zinc, iron and copper.
These findings have helped to revise fertilizer recommendations
at the woreda and kebele levels, as well as to identify highly acidic
soils that should be rehabilitated with the use of lime. Moreover,
40,000 fertilizer demonstrations carried out in partnership with
the Regional Bureaus of Agriculture on farmers’ plots have
helped persuade millions of farmers to adopt the recommended
soil nutrient supplements, as well as more aligned agronomic
practices.
Five fertilizer blending plants have also been established in the
four regions with the largest agricultural production in order to
help meet the demand for appropriate blended fertilizers. During
2015, all five plants (one each in Amhara, Tigray and SNNP, and
two in Oromia) became operational, with a production capacity
of 30,000 MT each. This is expected to increase in the near
future to a combined capacity of ~250,000 MT. The initiative has
also identified potential locations for additional fertilizer blending
≈40
years of blanket fertilizer recommendation
of DAP & urea
84,633
soil samples collected by EthioSIS project
455
woredas mapped & analyzed for soil
information
86%
surveyed land estimated to be deficient
in boron
98%
surveyed land estimated to be deficient
in phosphorus
92%
surveyed land estimated to be deficient
in sulfur
12
new fertilizer formulas developed