PROGRESS REPORT

82 PROGRESS REPORT PROGRAM LEVEL PROGRESS REPORT 83
Regional Highlights
were identified and proposed to a Private Sector
Development Task Force. While the Task Force has
endorsed the broad policy areas as well as the essence
and direction of the policy recommendations, further
revisions were requested and are currently underway.
Deliverable 83 (Tef International Market Access
(TIMA)) has also been classified as “Slightly Delayed.”
However substantial progress has been made since
the project was initiated in September 2014. In
particular, the design of a tef export model has been
Deliverable status and key achievements in primary thematic areas
Thematic
Area
Strategies/
Policies/
Regulations
Introduction of
Innovative Ideas
Deliverable Status Key Achievements
D78: Develop a national
strategy on ICT in agriculture
D82: Revision, modification,
and implementation of G8
New Alliance Cooperation
Framework
D79: Complete an institutional
survey and deploy ICTs in all
Cluster woreda agriculture
offices in order to collect
real-time information including
gender-disaggregated data
D80: Develop, test and scaleup
an ICT-based information
dissemination system
D81: Develop, test and scaleup
an Input Tracking System to
monitor the input distribution
supply chain from imports and
local production to smallholder
farmers
D83: Design and launch Tef
International Market Access
(TIMA) project to tap into
growing international gluten
free market
D84: Design and launch
Agricultural Commercialization
Clusters (ACCs) project to
integrate all Transformation
Agenda deliverables in key
commodities/geographies
approved by senior policy makers and launched with
farmers, covering nearly 6,000 ha of land. Challenges,
however, have come in two particular areas: 1) the
effect of the El Nino weather patterns in Ethiopia
caused difficulties for a number of the farmers in the
pilot project, which may affect the total amount of land
and production covered in the initial year; and 2) buyers
of tef flour (which is the target output for export) have
been slower to materialize than expected, as most
international buyers are interested in buying raw tef
that can be processed elsewhere.
Progress to Date:
• ICT in Agriculture Strategy outline developed
Completed Results:
5 Regulations/guidelines completed
• Of the 15 policy commitments made by the GoE as part of
the G8 New Alliance Cooperation Framework, stakeholders
deemed 5 to be fully implemented
Completed Results:
1 innovative concept piloted and scaled-up
• Institutional survey completed in 251 woredas, with webbased
Agricultural Planning Tool under development
Completed Results:
2 innovative concepts piloted and scaled-up
645,242 farmers trained on and using new technologies
• Innovative concepts piloted and scaled-up include pushing
alerts via IVR/SMS and a technology that allows users to
call in and ‘pull’ recommended best practices
Completed Results:
1 innovative concept piloted and scaled-up
• Input Tracking System scaled up to 179 woredas, including
67 cooperative unions
Progress to Date:
• 47 commercial farmers engaged in a project to export tef
flour to international markets
Completed Results:
1 innovative concept piloted
• Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) initiative
launched
The ATA and the Agricultural Transformation Agenda aim to support all of the regions across
Ethiopia. However, since the ATA was a completely new organization during GTP I and the
concept of an Agricultural Transformation Agenda had still not been tested in the country, a
sequenced approach to engaging the regions has been necessary.
As such, during GTP I, the ATA began its engagement at the regional level with only a few
regions. Identification of the regions for initial engagement was based on several factors.
First was a prioritization of the regions in which the multi-donor supported Agricultural Growth
Program (AGP) was active. It was seen that the many complementary investments underway in
the AGP would allow the ATA to quickly test out the concept of the Transformation Agenda for
replication in other regions. Furthermore, regions were prioritized based on their contribution to
national production in the prioritized commodities in the Transformation Agenda during GTP I.
Based on these two main criteria, the four regions that were selected for initial focus in the
Agricultural Transformation Agenda, and for the ATA’s support, were: Amhara, Oromia, SNNP and
Tigray. The following pages provide a brief overview of the key deliverables making significant
progress in each of these four regions.
With the expansion of the AGP into emerging regions beyond Amhara, Oromia, SNNP
and Tigray, as well as the inclusion of commodities such as livestock and horticulture in
the Transformation Agenda during GTP II, it is expected that the ATA and the Agricultural
Transformation Agenda’s work during the coming years will expand beyond the initial four
regions engaged during GTP I. It will however be important to ensure that this expansion is
undertaken in a deliberate and structured manner, with full commitment to the new regions
engaged, and based on sufficient capacity to undertake such new work.