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Policies
& Strategies |
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Within the overall policy framework
of the agreement, Ethiopia's agricultural sector policy is to
enhance the productivity of smallholder farming and at the same time
promote commercial farms especially in the various river basins
where the scope for irrigated agriculture is very wide. While the
government does not foresee the share of agriculture in the total
GDP to remain at its present level, the sector is placed at the core
of the government's overall development strategy, more commonly
known as Agriculture-Development-Led Industrialization (ADLI). More
specifically, Ethiopia's
agricultural sector policy may be summarized as follows: |
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Public and
state land ownership with guaranteed user right as well as the right
to lease land, pass it on to kins, freely sell the produce and hire
labour, and to be compensated fully when expropriated. |
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Achieve
food-self sufficiency rapidly, promote the supply of agricultural
commodities for export, provide raw materials for domestic
industries, and eventually attain food security. |
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Enhance the
conservation and development of natural resources. |
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Provide access
to free market providing the right to sell the farmer's produce at
places of his/her choice at market prices. |
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Expand modern
commercial farms. |
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Encourage
private investors in agriculture and agri-business. |
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By and large, the strategy of ADLI
focuses primarily on agricultural development. This is to be
attained through improvement of productivity in smallholdings, and
expansion of large-scale farms particularly in the lowlands. ADLI
foresees that agriculture would supply commodities for exports,
domestic food supply and industrial output, and at the same provide
market for domestic manufactures.
Agriculture is the foundation of the
country's food production. The smallholder sub-sector is in
particular the major source of staple food production. Food security
can be achieved basically by promoting smallholder development in a
sustainable manner.
In light of this, a special emphasis
is placed on encouraging smallholder farmers to raise their
productivity through various incentive packages (access to
fertilizer, credits, etc.) and other supports. The development of
the smallholder farming is envisaged to proceed in three stages, viz: |
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Improvement of
agricultural practices and utilization of better seeds; |
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Development of
agricultural infrastructure, such as small-scale irrigation, and the
introduction of modern inputs including fertilizers and
agro-chemicals; and |
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Increasing farm
sizes which takes place along with shifting of population from
agriculture to non-agricultural activities. |
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The first and the second stages are
land augmenting in that more output would be obtained from the same
unit of land. Output per farm-family would increase depending on the
pace of productivity improvement. It is the firm belief of the
government that sustainable agricultural development can only be
ensured with the realization of Stage Three which is dependent on
accelerated industrial development.
The agriculture sector strategy
focuses on improvement of productivity of smallholder agriculture,
whilst encouraging greatly the growth of both extensive mechanized
farming and intensive commercial agriculture. The expansion and
development of large-scale modern private farms would be promoted.
To this effect, the policy is to: |
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Provide lands,
especially in the lowlands of the various river basins, on
concessionary bases and provide full guarantees in respect of the
right of use. |
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Provide
incentives in the form of tax holidays, duty exemptions, etc.; and
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Create enabling
conditions for the expansion of modern private farming by expanding
infrastructure such as roads, health facilities, etc. |
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