PROGRESS REPORT

76 PROGRESS REPORT PROGRAM LEVEL PROGRESS REPORT 77
Crosscutting
Key Success Areas
Climate & Environment
Why is transformation needed in this program area?
Ethiopian agriculture is heavily dependent on natural
resources, particularly land/soil and rainfall. As a result,
efforts to increase production and productivity can be
undermined by long-term losses in soil fertility, climate
variability and related biotic stresses.
Unsustainable and extractive agricultural practices are
key factors that have negatively influenced Ethiopian
agriculture over the last 3 decades. In addition,
global climate change, with erratic rainfall, increasing
Objectives of the GTP I Transformation Agenda Deliverables
Overall, the Climate & Environment Program aims
to support the mainstreaming of Ethiopia’s Climate
Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy by greening
the Transformation Agenda. In particular, during GTP I,
Overall Performance Summary
Both of the deliverables in this program area (100%)
can be considered “Slightly Delayed.”
On Track
Slightly Delayed
Significantly Delayed
100%
Deliverable 69: Agro-met Project has proactively
supported capacity building of the extension and
meteorological systems to introduce the use of climate
information in advisory services to farmers. This was
initially done by promoting the use of rain gauges
at FTCs and among model farmers, then expanding
towards investments in automatic weather stations and
capacity building for the generation and interpretation
of downscaled weather information across a more
holistic set of variables (rainfall, temperature, wind
movements, etc.). However, the project is still in a
pilot stage. Moving forward, in addition to scaling-up,
a climate information communication and feedback
system will also be developed.
temperatures, and extreme events (particularly
droughts) has created added challenges.
Sustainably increasing agricultural production and
productivity – which underlies the agricultural
transformation effort – over the long term, requires
development and adoption of Climate Smart
Agricultural (CSA) practices that enhance the natural
resource base, promote adaptation to a changing
climate, and ensure climate change mitigation.
the C&E Program sought to promote enhanced use
of climate information to support climate responsive
advisory services and related agronomic decisionmaking
by smallholder farmers.
In Deliverable 70: Mainstreaming Climate Smart
Agriculture, the C&E Program has been successful in
mainstreaming issues of climate-smart agriculture into
the Transformation Agenda around four outcome areas:
• Promotion of CSA production technologies and
practices through key agricultural systems, such
as extension, research, seeds, fertilization, and
mechanization
• Promotion of technologies/practices relating
to efficient use of natural resources and water
resources development
• Enhanced input, finance and output markets
linked to the adoption of CSA technologies and/
or practices in production and marketing
• Increased capacity for CSA mainstreaming within
the ATA and its partners
However, many of the deliverable initiatives remain
somewhat ad hoc. In particular, there is limited
progress in terms of promoting the adoption of
agricultural practices that protect and conserve
the natural resource base (i.e., moving away from
current extractive practices that prevail in Ethiopia’s
smallholder agriculture) including conservation
agriculture. While conservation agriculture has been
successfully piloted in selected geographies, there has
not been any success in scaling-up an integrated set of
practices, primarily because the case for doing so has
not been fully established.
The primary success realized in the C&E Program is
the mainstreaming of CSA practices into the agriculture
component of the second Growth and Transformation
Plan (A-GTP II) and the Transformation Agenda for GTP II.
The following are some of the various initiatives in the
Transformation Agenda that have contributed towards
CSA in GTP I:
• Capacity of the extension system to move
from blanket recommendations towards more
optimal soil fertilization considerations (thereby
contributing to reducing GHG emissions)
enhanced through soil mapping under the EthioSiS
project and demonstration of the application of
blended fertilizers
• Intercropping and rotation of cereals with pulses
for improved soil health promoted through
the development of a strategy and support to
integrated interventions within key cropping
systems
• Household irrigation (and therefore reduced
reliance on rainfall) promoted by addressing key
systemic bottlenecks along irrigation value chains
• Business models for availing mechanized
technologies to smallholder farmers developed
within wheat/maize/tef/sesame farming
systems, with a particular focus on harvesting
and threshing; this is expected to reduce postharvest
losses (a key aspect of more sustainable
agricultural production) due to poor handling
Areas with Challenges
As the C&E initiatives remain somewhat ad hoc, a
more holistic approach to promoting Climate Smart
Agriculture is needed. Issues that require further
consideration include: 1) establishing a case for
conservation agriculture and identifying key entry
points for scaling-up related activities; 2) incentivizing
farmers to adopt agricultural practices that protect the
natural resource base and to invest in natural resource
Deliverable status and key achievements in primary thematic areas
Thematic
Area
Introduction
of Innovative
Ideas
Structures/
Processes/
Systems
development; 3) identifying climate smart initiatives
downstream of agricultural value chains and in financial
systems; and 4) managing livestock within Ethiopia’s
farming systems in a more sustainable manner that
also reduces GHG emissions from livestock. These
areas will be a major focus of the GTP II period,
building on current diagnostic work.
Deliverable Status Key Achievements
D69: Enhance and expand
the use of agro-meteorology
information for improving
smallholder farmer
productivity
D70: Design and begin
implementation of an
approach to mainstream
climate issues in all
deliverables
• Storage capacity at the primary coop level is
also being enhanced to help reduce post-harvest
losses—in this case, due to pests and poor postharvest
handling
• The ICT project that delivers extension advice
through Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
increasingly incorporates messages that
relate to climate adaptation and environment
sustainability (e.g., irrigation agronomy)
Through the Agro-met Project, increased use of
climate information by the extension system is
being successfully promoted, although there are
still significant capacity constraints that need to be
addressed. An example of the project’s contribution
is its support to providing systemic solutions to the
drought situation of 2015, where agronomic advisories
have been provided to help farmers adapt to suboptimal
rainfall and preparations for distribution of
drought resistant crop varieties and veterinary drugs, in
anticipation of animal diseases.
The Agro-met Project has also introduced rain
gauges at the FTC and model farmer levels and
provided training on their use. Training-of-trainers
within the extension system has also been provided
on the interpretation of climate forecasts and the
development of advisories, along with support for an
agro-met stakeholders’ platform.
Completed Results:
3 innovative concepts and approaches piloted
• Promotion of plastic rain gauges, introduction of woreda
level downscaled climate information, and initiation of
stakeholder joint agro-meteorological forum
Progress to Date:
• Concept note on advocating, documenting and
demonstrating climate smart agriculture best practices
under review by stakeholders