President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Agnes Klibata has commended the effort being made by government of Ethiopia to transform the agriculture sector with a view to ensure food self-sufficiency in the country and boost export trade.
AGRA is a farmer-centered, African-led, and partnerships-driven institution that is transforming Africa’s smallholder farming from a solitary struggle to survive to businesses that thrive.
In an exclusive interview with ENA, President of AGRA, Agnes Klibata commended the works being undertaken by the government of Ethiopia to expedite the agriculture development transformation of the country with a view to ensuring food self-sufficient and expand foreign trade.
Noting Africa is a continent still struggling to feed itself, she lauded Ethiopia for its encouraging efforts to transform the agricultural sector which can be exemplary to other African countries.
“I am able to see such activities within a country in the continent of Africa that is capable to produce enough food such as wheat for its people and export. This really shows what Africa can do.”
The various efforts implemented in Ethiopia to increase productivity and improve crop outputs that can be exported to foreign markets as well as the land rehabilitation endeavors being carried out to boost the development of the sector are important activities, she underlined.
Mentioning that Ethiopia is planning to put in place a program in order to enhance the production of rice in the country to help the nation food self-sufficient, she said “this is really commendable work that we want to see in other African countries to enable them feed themselves.”
She stressed the need to increase efforts to exploit the potential of the agriculture sector for other economic sectors in order to create more jobs for the young generation and enhance export trade, she underlined.
The president further affirmed AGRA’s commitment to work with the government of Ethiopia to continue strengthening institutional capacities, to provide support in terms of the availability of seed and seed systems, insurance system between agriculture sectors.
She said “We can take what we have learned from here to other parts of the continent so that they can also learn from what Ethiopia is doing.”
Ethiopia is living and working the food system agenda that we have been talking about transforming the food-systems, she witnessed.
“If this can be enhanced more families have food, more people will have will have jobs this is exactly what we are hoping and looking for,” she added.
Other African countries need to emulate what Ethiopia is doing to replicate Ethiopia’s experience in the sector, she said.
“We need people to invest in the Agricultural sector; we need people to empower small holder farmers. Those are the things that we have to do from working good leadership is what Africa need,” she underscored.
It is to be recalled that a total of 14 delegations comprising ministers and officials from Zambia, Niger, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire have visited Ethiopia last week to see the encouraging agriculture development being carried out in the country.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency