by Adel El-Beltagy
Of all the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia perhaps is the most notorious worldwide for famines. In any given year, it seems, there is one area in the country that suffers from a serious food shortage.
There are several reasons for Ethiopia's susceptibility to hunger and its consequent dependence on food aid. One is the 3 percent growth per year in population. Another is the erosion that has denuded the country's highlands. Deforestation has reduced closed forests to 1 percent of the land area. And poverty is rampant, with per capita income among the lowest in the world at about US$120. Yet, there is reason for fresh hope that Ethiopia could again become self-reliant in food.
Since the end of the civil war, Ethiopia has undertaken great efforts to modernize its agriculture. Young Ethiopian scientists, trained abroad, have been providing leadership and formed a dedicated and vigorous research team actively carrying out research for Ethiopia's millions of small, resource-poor farmers. These Ethiopian scientists intend to make sure that the horrific scenes of the famine of 1984-85 will never return. In those years, drought and widespread crop failure caused millions to lose their lives and resulted in the displacement of millions more.
So grim was the famine that one journalist wrote a book on the crisis, A Year in the Death of Africa. But Africa does not intend to die, and at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) we can look back with cautious satisfaction at our participation, since ICARDA's start, in international efforts to assist Ethiopia's scientists in safeguarding their country's future.
Pulses- a key source of protein
In 1983, Ethiopia's production of pulses was 799,000 tons. In 1985, when famine gripped the nation, it dropped to 539,000 tons. Faba bean, lentil, field pea, chickpea, and grasspea are all important in the country, but yields are low. Field pea and faba bean suffer from inadequate land preparation, sowing methods, and low seed rates, while lack of weeding makes matters worse. High temperature and low rainfall are added impediments. And, in some ways, worst of all, there has been heavy reliance on unimproved cultivars which are highly susceptible to climatic extremes, pests and diseases.
The Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) in Addis Ababa, the chief body for agricultural research in the country, realized that a great deal needed to be done. IAR decided to strengthen its highland pulses research. First, in 1986, it joined ICARDA's Nile Valley faba bean project, which already covered Egypt and Sudan. This allowed IAR to start field verification of improved faba bean production practices, and back-up research in collaboration with Egypt, Sudan and ICARDA. The World Bank also provided support which enabled ICARDA to strengthen the highland pulses research in Ethiopia.
IAR and ICARDA's Nile Valley Regional Program (NVRP), as it is now known, have continued to improve cool-season feed legumes in the region. Since 1989, country-specific support from ICARDA and the Government of Sweden has accelerated introduction of improved varieties for lentil, faba bean, field pea, kabuli chickpea and lathyrus. ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) in India has been the source of improved desi chickpea, and there has been input from Europe and North America on field pea and faba bean.
Of the 4,465 introductions of breeding material for cool-season food legumes, 3,236 have come from ICARDA. Emphasis has been on developing cultivars with intrinsic resistance to insect pests and diseases, avoiding the needs for pesticides which poorer farmers can't afford and which are environmentally damaging. At the same time, native germplasm has been collected. Sources of local adaptation and resistance to specific stresses must never be lost.
Barley
ICARDA's work is not restricted to legumes; it holds the CG system's worldwide mandate for the improvement of barley. This is particularly important in Ethiopia where barley accounts for 20 percent of all cereal production and covers the third largest area of any crop--950,000 hectares.
In 1989, a team of scientists from ICARDA and IAR began investigating the local barley landraces. Ethiopia is an important source of genetic diversity in barley, but this diversity had been exploited more by scientists outside the country.
Working with Italian funding from ICARDA's general barley research, the team discovered that by exploiting Ethiopia's own diversity they could produce lines yielding 30 to 40 percent more in practice than commonly used cultivars. When the first phase of the research ended two years ago, work continued with funding assistance from The Netherlands.
The main objectives are to develop improved landraces which perform well on low-input small holdings, typical of Ethiopian agriculture; to develop the right packages of agronomic practices; and to transfer this technology to farmers. If this is to be done successfully, farmers have to be involved in the evaluation process and in on-farm trials.
The researchers are also comparing performance under different specific circumstances--and for different purposes: farmers want barley straw for feed, for example. And, high-input varieties are not neglected either. We have found that national programs in the region don't want us to do that. If the economy improves and fertilizer or other inputs become available, they want to be ready to exploit them.
Can all this effort make a worthwhile difference to agricultural production? The figures tell the story.
From 1982 to 1992, results of faba bean demonstrations disclosed average yield increases of 0.62 ton per ha (86 percent) and 0.57 ton per ha (74 percent) in high and intermediate altitudes in the central zone of Ethiopia. Income improvement to small-scale farmers was 65 percent and 61 percent, respectively. The monetary gain represented 330 percent and 337 percent of the additional technology costs.
In large-scale demonstration fields in 1989 and 1990, an average yield advantage of 0.68 ton per ha (64 percent) was recorded, corresponding to about 60 percent improvement in farmers' incomes. The return on extra cost to the farmer was 1,303 percent.
Similar increases were recorded with lentil and chickpea packages. Barley on-farm demonstrations, conducted with the NVRP Barley Project in Ethiopia, have shown high potential for barley improvement. Yield increases with a technological package of improved cultivar and management practices in six districts in west and northwest Shewa were paramount, averaging 1.1 tons per ha over traditional practices, an 86 percent increase.
Farmers are adopting these new packages, studies show. IAR is continuing to strengthen the seed production system, and encouraging transfer of technology through extension improvements.
ICARDA has recently initiated a project in the country, which we have nicknamed "Seed Safety Net." It is designed to reduce the chances of disaster and to speed recovery if the worst does happen again.
The objective of the project is to coordinate national seed programs in the region so that we can find out what locally adapted seeds are used in an affected area, where the stocks are, and reduce constraints in the movement of seed across borders in an emergency (for example, by compiling information on trade and quarantine regulations).
Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan, Republic of Yemen, and Eritrea are participating in the first phase of the project. It will be extended to other countries later.
The project works through the WANA (West Asia and North Africa) Seed Network, a collaboration among the seed programs of the WANA countries with its secretariat at ICARDA headquarters in Aleppo, Syria, making it highly cost-effective.
I would like to think that the new seed program will help avoid the worst and speed recovery should drought threaten the country again with disaster.
Collaboration and training
ICARDA/NVRP support to the Ethiopian national program is not confined to crop breeding. A national coordination meeting is held annually in Ethiopia, for instance, during which national and ICARDA scientists review the results of work done and develop plans. In season, they visit on-farm and on-station research work to assess progress.
Training is also provided through courses and workshops. Since 1979, nearly 350 Ethiopian scientists and technologists have participated. In 1986-89, heavy emphasis was put on expanding highland pulses research capability, and several Ethiopian scientists were sponsored for MSc and PhD training. At the same time, ICARDA offered short courses ranging from varietal improvement to data processing and impact assessment.
Basically, Ethiopia's agriculture is now in much better shape than a decade earlier. Since the devastating famine of 1984/85, national researchers have made great progress in improving the productivity of Ethiopia's food crop cultivation, supported by new varieties and agronomic practices developed in collaboration with ICARDA.
There has been much progress, and we are pleased to have been a part of it. I am convinced that a vigorous national agricultural research program will eventually succeed in leading Ethiopia back to the state of self-reliance in basic food supplies it once enjoyed.
(Adel El-Beltagy is Director General, ICARDA)