agriculture growth program – agribusiness and market … · 2019. 4. 24. · agp-amde partnered...

AGRICULTURAL GROWTH PROGRAM- AGRIBUSINESS AND MARKET

DEVELOPMENT (AGP-AMDE) PROJECT

USAID/ETHIOPIA

CONTRACT NUMBER: AID #663-TO-11-0000

QUARTERLY REPORT

October 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014

Agriculture Growth Program – Agribusiness

and Market Development (AGP-AMDe)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................................................... 1

SUMMARY OF INDICATOR PERFORMANCE RESULTS .............................................................................. 4

SUCCESS STORIES (OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2014)..................................................................................... 5

COMPONENT I: IMPROVE VALUE CHAIN COMPETITIVENESS .............................................................. 8

Coffee Value Chain................................................................................................................................................ 9

Sesame Value Chain.............................................................................................................................................22

Chickpea Value Chain .........................................................................................................................................39

Honey Value Chain ..............................................................................................................................................47

Wheat Value Chain..............................................................................................................................................58

Maize Value Chain................................................................................................................................................71

Input Supply ...........................................................................................................................................................82

COMPONENT II: IMPROVING ACCESS TO AGRICULTURAL FINANCE AND INVESTMENT....94

COMPONENT III: IMPROVING AGRIBUSINESS ENABLING ENVIRONMENT.................................105

COMPONENT IV: GRANTS TO STIMULATE INNOVATION AND INVESTMENT ........................108

CROSS CUTTING ACTIVITIES .........................................................................................................................116

Summary of Capacity Building.........................................................................................................................116

Gender..................................................................................................................................................................120

Nutrition ..............................................................................................................................................................129

Behavior Change Communications (BCC) ..................................................................................................135

UPCOMING EVENTS (JANUARY – MARCH 2015) ....................................................................................138

ANNEXES (SEPARATE VOLUME) ....................................................................................................................140

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List of Acronyms

ACDI/VOCA Agricultural Cooperatives Development International/Volunteer OverseesCooperatives Assistance

AFCA African Fine Coffees Association

AGP-AMDe Agricultural Growth Program-Agribusiness and Market Development

AGP-LMD Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development

AMSAP Advance Maize Seed Adoption Program

ARARI Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute

ARC Agricultural Research Center

ATA Agricultural Transformation Agency

B2B Business to Business

BA Barrier Analysis

BCC Behavior Change and Communication

BDS Business Development Services

BoARD Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development

CAADP Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program

CBE Commercial Bank of Ethiopia

CBO Cooperative Bank of Oromia

CIG Common Interest Groups

CLU Central Liquoring Unit

CPA Cooperative Promotion Agency

CQI Coffee Quality Institute

CSA Central Statistics Authority

DAs Development Agents

DCA Development Credit Authority

DRRW Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat

EAB Ethiopian Apiculture Board

EAGC East African Grain Council

EBA Ethiopian Beekeepers Association

ECEA Ethiopia Coffee Export Association

ECEI Ethiopian Coffee Export Initiative

ECGPEA Ethiopian Coffee Growers, Producers and Exporters Association

ECX Ethiopian Commodity Exchange

EFC Ethiopian Fine Coffees

EHBPEA Ethiopian Honey and Beeswax Producers and Exporters Association

EIAR Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research

EMA Ethiopian Millers Association

ENGINE Empowering New Generations to Improve Nutrition and Economic Opportunities

EPOSPEA Ethiopian Pulses, Oil Seeds and Spices Processors and Exporters Association

ESE Ethiopian Seed EnterpriseFCA Federal Cooperative Agency

FCUs Farmer Cooperative Unions

FMHACA Food, Medicine and Health Care Administration Control Authority

FOG Fixed Obligation Grant

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FtF Feed the Future

GAP Good Agricultural Practices

GAIN Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

GoE Government of Ethiopia

GRAD Graduation with Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Development

GTP Growth Transformation Plan

HRC Holeta Research Center

ICT Information, Communication Technology

JARC Jimma Agricultural Research Center

JRIS Joint Review and Implementation Support

KFBPMFCU Kaffa Forest Bees Product Marketing Farmers Cooperatives Union

KHSPSC Kafta Humera Seed Production and Sales Cooperative

LC Letter of Credit

MFIs Micro Finance Institutions

MoA Ministry of Agriculture

MoFED Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

MoT Ministry of Trade

MOU Memorandum of Understanding

MSP Multi-Stakeholders Platform

MT Metric Tons

NBE National Bank of Ethiopia

NCA National Coffee Association

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

OARD Office of Agriculture and Rural Development

P4P Purchase for Progress

PCs Primary Cooperatives

PEPFAR President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

PERSUAP Pesticide Evaluation Report and Safer Use Action Plan

PFS Partners in Food Solutions

PHH Post-Harvest Handling

PLC Private Limited Company

PMP Performance Monitoring Plan

PRIME Pastoralist Areas Resilience Improvement and Market Expansion

RCA Regional Cooperative Agency

SACCO Saving and Credit Cooperative

SCAA Specialty Coffee Association of America

SHF Smallholder Farmer

SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises

SMFM Sell More for More

SNNPR Southern Nation Nationality and Peoples Region

SSRWE Sustainable Support for Rural Women Entrepreneurs

TARI Tigray Agricultural Research Institute

TMF Tigray Marketing Federation

TOH Taste of Harvest

ToT Training of Trainers

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TWG Technical Working Group

USAID United States Agency for International Development

USD United States Dollar

VC Value Chain

WFP World Food Program

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report covers the quarterly report period of October 1 to December 31, 2014 and describes

value chain market development results and activities including access to finance, enabling environment

and grant as well as cross cutting activities.

During the quarter, 29,795 smallholder farmers benefited, of which 17,000 were training beneficiaries

and USD 8 million facilitated for farm gate sales of and export of USD 8 million. The results are

highlighted by valuechain and components as follows.

Coffee: continued efforts of the AGP-AMDe resulted in sales of USD 1.5 million at farm gate and

USD 2.9 million in exports as well as generated 70 new jobs through coffee seedling nursery activities.

AGP-AMDe partnered with the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association (ECEA) andcoffee industry

leaders and the Ministry of Trade to host the 3rd Annual Conference of the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters

Association (ECEA) under the theme “Towards Quality and Traceability”. The event welcomed more

than 375 participants of which 60 participants were from abroad.

For ECX coffee traceability project, registration of processing stations for Sidama A coffee type has

been completed bringing the total number registered processing stations to 475 and the registration

of processing stations will for Jimma A and Limmu coffee types will be undertaken in next quarter

Sesame: 8,296 MT of sesame valued USD 12.8 million was purchased from smallholder farmers

through their primary cooperatives and USD 4.3 million is exported (2,055 MT). Sesame farmer

cooperative unions and federations accessedUSD 19.2 million loan from banksincluding the

Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), and the Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) for sesame

production and marketing activities following AGP-AMDe technical assistance inin business plan

preparation and negotiation organized between selected the financial institutions and nine FCUs, and

for two Marketing Federations.

Capacity building trainings in SMFM – PHH TOT, on managing grading equipment and cascading

training was provided to 3,050 participants (600 Female), and in management to 34 ( 2 Female) FCU

and PC Managers and Board Chairmen for ofive FCUs and eight PCs in six woredas in Amhara, Tigray

and Oromia

The popularization and technology transfer of improved seed multiplication of Humera I, and Setit 1,

application of blended micro nutrient fertilizer and row planting was supported by Field days on

selected demo sites at Metema and Humera. There were 256 (84 female) participants who observed

and evaluated the demonstration that compared the local variety and traditional practices with new

varieties, and participants were impressed with the new varieties. .It was planned to produce 300 MT,

but due to excessive and untimely rain the production is only 142.2 MT that will cover 35,541 ha of

land by 17,771 SHF. From the 2013/14 crop season multiplication, 76 MT was planted in Tigray,

Amhara and SNNPR on 18,989 ha of 28,610 SHF and produced 7,596 MT.

AGP-AMDe delivered 18 sets of grading equipment to nine major sesame producing and marketing

partner FCUs and their 21 affiliated PCs in Tigray and Amhara and organized two field days in Metema,

Amhara and Humera, Tigray. Farmers learned improved skills in applying blended fertilizer and planting

in rows as well as learned about farming experience with improved seed varieties.


AGP-AMDe sponsored the EPOSPEA’s 4th International Conference under the theme of “Global

Partnership for Sustainable Market Growth”. The conference was opened by H.E. Dr Mulatu Teshome,

President of FDRE and he stated the importance of the sector as it is the second hard currency earner

to the country and emphasized that Government, and exporters. And development partners to work

together to get out from the traditional way of export to value addition products for a better market

share and benefit. There were 268 conference participants of which 70 were internationaluyers from

Europe, US, Middle East and Asia. Presentations were delivered on key topic in the sector such as

gglobal and local sesame production and market trends, to create clear picture to the producers and

exporters, and help in purchase and export sales. There were also B2B meeting among international

buyers who participated in the conference and exporters which result in closing some deals, which

AGP-made is closely follow up to track them.

To strengthen the capacity of FCUs in export marketing and institutional capacity of EPOSPEA, AGP-

AMDe sponsored the participation selected sesame sector actors in in SIAL/Paris trade show and

international conference that was hold Oct. 18 -25, 2014. At SIAL/Paris, Metema and Dansha Aurora

FCU Managers participated and introduced their FCU profile by providing samples, brochures and

business cards to visitors of the trade show which was supplemented by B2B meetings

Chickpea: Erer FCU reported sales of 480 MT of Kabuli

chickpea from last year’s production at a price of USD

545/MT and total value of USD 261,600. A total of

3,244 participants in SMFM ToT, cascading, agronomic

practice and entrepreneurship trainings and field days

have benefited during the quarter. In addition,

participation of union managers in the 4th international

EPOSPEA conference and SIAL 2014 in France have

contributed to the strength and competitiveness of the

value chain.. Contribution of partners, such as Agro

Prom PLC in delivering post-harvest handling techniques

training to 70 lead

Farmers under Erer FCU has been one of the

major accomplishments.

Honey: Through joint investment of AGP-AMDe Innovation and Demonstration grant and Parodi

Apicultura, international honey buyer, Zenbaba Bee Products Development and Marketing

Cooperative Union put up the largest honey processing plant in Amhara region worth USD 147,619.

The new processing plant would enable Zenbaba to supply high quality processed honey to

international market.

AGP-AMDe also collaborated with GOs, NGOs, cooperatives and private actors has made various

efforts to improve the quality and boost the production and productivity of honey. Through different

project interventions more than 4,863 (42% female) farmers benefited during this reporting period.

The major results are supported FCUs to establish honey processing plant and attain fair trade

certification, sold 264 MT at value of USD 752,602 honey to both local and international market,

trained 4,719 (2,765 male and 1,954 female) smallholder farmers with modern beekeeping and

management skill. Therefore, there is a major shift of the sector in terms of market linkage creation,

sector promotion, product and technology improvement and technology introduction to smallholders

and also export honey to the EU member countries of Germany, UK, and non-EU members of


Norway, Japan, etc. Currently, support is provided to Beza Mar and COMEL to export 201 MT and

USD 802,160 to UK, Germany, Norway and Japan buyers.

The Amhara largest honey processing plant worth of USD 147,619 inaugurated in Zenbaba Bee

Products Development and Marketing Cooperative Union on November 19, 2014 in Bahir Dar. The

inauguration was held in the presence of Amhara Regional Bureau of Agriculture Dr. Teshome Wale,

International honey buyer, Santiago Herro from Parodi Apicultura and the former president of

Chamber of Commerce, Mulu Solomon and other invited guests. AGP-AMDe supported Zenbaba

FCU to collaborate with Parodi Apicultura and thus supported fund for the equipment. The processing

plant will enable Zenbaba to supply honey to international market.

Wheat: SMFM Leadership and Management Trainings were provided for 74 iead farmers, farmer

cooperative leaders, DAs and PHH ToTs for a total of 106 individuals. Cascading on PHH was provided

for 1,252 smallholder farmers (SHFs). In addition four field days on seed multiplication and

popularization were organized in all the four regions to popularize technologies. A total of 1,514 (450

female) smallholder farmers, extension workers and concerned officials have actively participated in

the field days. Job opportunity was created for three Employees (one in Amhara region and the other

in Tigray region). The total volume of wheat sale aggregated was 1,645 MT worth of USD 728,859.

Maize: Hybrid maize seed technology reaching through AMSAP in 16 AGP woredas and BH-661 in

seven woredas of SNNPR are on harvest and threshing stages. SNNPR BH-661 partially completed

and 34 lead farmers yield results are evaluated and over 80% yield increase achieved. As maize

production is increasing; World Food Program (WFP) through Purchase for Progress (P4P) program

influenced to purchase white maize, encouraged small holder farmers to produce more and more. The

limited purchase of WFP and export ban of maize caused some FCUs to remain with excess

production. For the coming season, WFP has signed an MOU with 14 FCUs to supply 16,800 MT.

Nonetheless, the production volume increase of maize is becoming challenging to be absorbed by the

local market. The local market cannot absorb the national maize supply and it seems a high time to

demonstrate regional export market. Now, the challenge shift is from low production to high

marketing cost compared to regional market prices. The price of maize in the local market is higher

than the prices of regional markets, which is another challenge over maize export ban. Hence, AGP

AMDe will continue the effort to increase the productivity per unit input so that production cost will

be minimized and competitiveness of the value chain increased.

Access to Finance: A total of 26 million USD rural loans disbursed for 16 value chain actors in

sesame, maize, coffee & wheat value chains in AGP-AMDe project areas. Trained 87 SACCO leaders,

staff and promoter on SACCO financial and risk management and strategic business planning for three

days.

Enabling Environment: As a result of AGP-AMDe contributions to get the need for private sector

participation in fertilizer distribution to the attention of policy makers, MoA/ATA team has prepared

and presented to key stakeholders a policy proposal for revision of the National Fertilizer Policy and

re-establishment of the National Fertilizer Industry Agency, which was dissolved as redundant in 2006.

Based on lessons learned from the AGP-AMDe organized study tour to South Africa and Colombia

for ECX Board and management for benchmarking international warehousing best practices to inform

the separation of ECX warehouse system from that of ECX trading platform , a Regulations to

establish Warehouse Public Enterprise has been developed and passed by the Council of Ministers’.

This would separate the ECX warehousing system from that of the ECX trading system, which would


be the first step in the evolution of warehousing and grading system that support the growth of third

party(.i.e private sector) warehousing and grading, one of the policy issues that AGP-AMDe has been

advancing.

Innovation and Demonstration Fund: forty one new grants worth USD 146,783 were awardedin this quarter. To-date, of the total USD 14.2 million AGP-AMDe Innovation and DemonstrationFund, AMDe has awarded 291 grants worth a total of USD 12,401,272, of which USD 7,321,479 (59%)has been disbursed; while grants in the amount of USD 2,010,517 are in the process of approval. Thetotal grant awarded will attract approximately USD 14,191,680 matching contribution by grantees andthird party partners.

Behavior Change Communication: During the quarter, AGP-AMDe’s continued to promote the

utilization of improved seeds and fertilizers as well as more inclusion of women in cooperatives and

FCUs. Print communication materials like posters, fliers and pocket guides that promotes the benefits

of using improved seeds and fertilizers as well as appropriate farming techniques to farmers, and

cooperatives has been distributed. AGP-AMDe has also developed and print different communication

materials promoting women’s inclusion in farmers’ cooperative. Beginning March 2014, AMDe is

implementing an incentives-based women membership drive competition among selected 50 FCUs in

four regions aiming for 30% women membership. To this end, AMDe has continued its effort by further

distributing 14,223 print materials to FCUs, and cooperatives management members and farmers that

are both cooperative members and non-members.

The Regional Cooperative Promotion Bureaus (RCPBs) reported that a total of 78,869 women have

joined primary cooperatives across the four regional states since March 2014. Of this total, 38, 413

is reported with a list of names collected from PCs through FCUs. Collecting the names from over

1,500 PCs has been challenging for the FCUs but they have continued to update the numbers in

collaboration with regional cooperative bureaus.


SUMMARY OF INDICATOR PERFORMANCE RESULTS

AGP-AMDe achieved significant results to date and during the current quarter. The following table

presents the results achieved during the quarter and Life of Project. For some the priority indicators.

Key PerformanceIndicators

LOP targetAnnualtarget

TotalQuarterActualResults

Cumulativeactual

(March 2011to Dec2014

% of LOPtarget

Achieved

Number of jobsattributed to FTFimplementation

8,144 2,069 276 3,320 41

Number of beneficiariessupported by AGP-AMDe assisted valuechains

1,000,144 242,197 29,795 671,010 67

Value of sales (collectedat farm-level) attributedto FtF implementation –USD

94,733,730 1,627,344 8,030,614 55,221,721 58

Number of individualswho have received USGsupported short-termagricultural sectorproductivity or foodsecurity training

112,301 24,800 17,049 106,902 95

Value of exports oftargeted agriculturalcommodities as a resultof USG assistance - USD

148,236,057 29,016,914 8,005,841 116,566,713 79

Value of Agricultural andRural Loans - USD

39,134,157 12,064,278 26,030,000 69,436,779 177


SUCCESS STORIES (OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2014)


COMPONENT I: IMPROVE VALUE CHAIN COMPETITIVENESS

Coffee Value Chain

Overview

Less than 20% of Ethiopia’s coffee exports meet the standards to receive the value added prices of

specialty coffee. Ethiopia has the available, arable land for coffee production (according to government

statistics 450,000 hectares), labor (at least 5 million smallholder farmers who directly depend on

coffee), and varieties to increase the export of quality coffees by more than 75%. Reaching this level

of specialty coffee exports would bring an increase of earning greater than USD 250 million dollars

annually to Ethiopia’s coffee farmers.

Under the coffee value chain strategy, AGP-AMDe’s work is contributing to the overall goal of a major

expansion of coffee production, requiring a 50% increase in Ethiopian coffee exports that will generate

additional value added export revenues of over 200% by 2020 as per the government’s Growth and

Transformation Plan (GTP), whereby improvement in quality and creating an enabling environment for

traceability are considered key competitive objectives. Specifically, the program is working to increase

the value of commercial coffee while promoting specialty coffees; assisting to develop technology

platforms that enable traceability for mainstream Ethiopian coffees; increasing efficiency of the ECX

platform; and promoting new developments in coffee export markets.

Throughout the life of the project, AGP-AMDe will work actively to contribute to the goal of a 50%

increase in Ethiopian coffee exports as per the government plan. AGP-AMDe supports the coffee

sector to improve productivity quality by establishing nursery sites in collaboration with research

center through coops and CIG’s, traceability system development, market promotion through

participation of international tradeshows, providing innovative grant support, Q certification course

and developing capacity of coffee farmers, cooperative unions, and all other through continuous

trainings. The main targets include:

• Create new jobs

• Increase the value of coffee exports

• Increase the quality, yield and amount of coffee sold

Summary of Top Results

- Coffee Value Chain delivered sales of USD 1.5 million at farm gate and USD 2.9 million in

exports, generated 70 new jobs through nursery activities, facilitated processing of 809 MT

and supported 2,695 beneficiaries during the quarter.

- A total of 11,775 leaflets and 3,382 posters were distributed in both Oromia and SNNPR to

equip farmers with the necessary long-lasting knowledge and skill in Post-harvest handling

techniques.

- Completed registration of all processing stations for Sidama A coffee type. A total of 370

processing stations have been registered so far. Began logistical planning and scheduling tasks

for Jimma A and Limmu coffee types.

- Carried out ToT training on quality coffee production, harvesting, processing and drying

techniques for 36 (2 female) coffee quality inspectors and coffee processing officers from 11

woredas in Jimma and Ilubabor zones.


- Provided Sell More For More (SMFM) management training based on the the training modules

for 21 Yirgacheffe FCU board members and PC leaders.

- Provided SMFM agricultural post-harvest handling (PHH) ToT training for 153 (14 female) lead

farmers selected from member PCs of Buno Bedele, Sedeten Chora, Arga FCUs as well as

METAD PLC out growers.

- Provided SMFM post-harvest handling cascading training to 2,942 (1,087 female) members of

Bench Maji, Kaffa, Yirgachefe, Buno Bedele and Arga coffee FCU’s.

Key Activities and Successes

Capacity Building

Oromia

- Provided a ToT training on quality coffee production, harvesting processing and drying

techniques in Jimma town for 36 (2 female) coffee quality inspectors and coffee processing

officers. Participants were drawn from 11 growing woredas from the Jimma and Ilubabor

zones. Trainers came from the Jimma coffee research center, Jimma ECX and Oromia

agricultural bureau.

- Provided a SMFM PHH ToT training in Jimma for 41 (1 female) lead farmers and three

facilitators selected from three FCU’s called Buno Bedele, Sedeten Chora and Arga. Each

trained lead farmer is expected to cascade the knowledge for 40 farmers in their community.

The training is expected to reach a total of 2,040 follower farmers.

- Provided SMFM ToT on coffee PHH training for Buno Bedele FCU’s two primary cooperativesand Arga FCU’s primary cooperative. So far, a total of 670 (335 female) farmers have beentrained.

SNNPR:

- Provided SMFM management training to Yirgacheffe union board members and primary

cooperative leaders. The training was based on the Membership, Management, Money and

Marketing concept. The program provided the highly interactive training for 21 leaders to

create specific strategies so as to increase the quantity and quality of coffee produced to meet

the requirement of the market and earn higher prices.

- Provided a SMFM PHH ToT training to 110 lead farmers (13 females) in collaboration with

partner METAD PLC in the Geded woreda. The training focuses on harvesting, processing

and post-harvest handling techniques. Trainees are expected to cascade the knowledge they

acquire to out growers who work in collaboration with METAD PLC.

- Trained lead farmers provided a SMFM PHH cascade training for Bench Maji, Kaffa and

Yirgacheffe union farmers. These trainings help smallholder farmers increase the volume and

quality of coffee production. The training session is benefited 2,272 smallholder farmers (752

females).

Posters and leaflets: In order to equip farmers with the necessary, long-lasting knowledge and skills

in post-harvest handling techniques, AGP-AMDe produced posters and leaflets on four basic topics:

The construction of raised drying tables; coffee harvesting; quality coffee storage; and coffee visual and

sensory defects. So far a total of 11,775 leaflets and 3,382 posters have been distributed in both

Oromia and SNNP regions.


ECX & Traceability: The program registered all processing stations for Sidama A coffee type and

began the logistical planning and scheduling tasks for Jimma A and Limmu coffee types. Pocket

brochures were handed out during registration. So far, 370 processing stations have been registered.

The delivery of the

Phase I software system

was delayed by a month

due to the software

vendor internal issues.

Phase II remains on

track.

A prototype test phase

is planned for January

2015 to assess the use of

the traceability system

within the ECX and

entire value chain environment and identify integration points with ECX system. This phase will also

evaluate various barcode tag designs and barcode scanning devices and make a selection so that

procurement for larger quantities of the selected scanning device and barcode tags can be made as

per the schedule. Sample scanning devices and bar code tags will be on hand during the prototype

test phase to aid in the evaluation and selection.

Women in Coffee Day: Under the theme “Highlighting Women’s Value”, 47 women and six men

participated in Ethiopia’s first Women in Coffee Day on November 5th at the Hilton Hotel in Addis

Ababa. In the morning sessions, the participants were divided into groups according their role in the

value chain. Together, they explored challenges with respect to gender and developed ideas to solve

them. In the afternoon, two panels presented information and experiences working to improve the

status of women in Ethiopia and internationally. In closing, the women shared their vision for Ethiopia

in ten years, and lauded the meeting as an important step to strengthen their participation in the coffee

value chain.

ECEA Annual Conference: USAID AGP-AMDe partnered with the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters

Association (ECEA) and other Ethiopian government and coffee industry leaders to host the 3nd

Annual Conference of the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association (ECEA), November 6 & 7 in Addis

Ababa, under the theme Towards Quality and Traceability. The event welcomed more than 375

participants from different countries. In addition to the innovation grant fund allocated to the

conference, USAID AGP-AMDe provided the association technical assistance, including program

design, speaker identification, conference magazine preparation, as well as multiple promotional e-mail

blasts to international participants around the globe.

National Coffee Day: In recognition of coffee’s vital economic and social importance, the Ministry

of Agriculture in collaboration with the SNNPR Bureau of Agriculture organized the second national

coffee day under the theme: Modern Coffee Development and Marketing for Economic Growth in Bonga

on December 23-24, 2014. As per the Ministry’s request, AGP-AMDe sponsored the event by

supplying medals, trophies and certificates which were awarded to model farmers, investors and youth

groups selected from different coffee producing woredas.


At the event, discussions were held on the overall coffee value chain issues, the potential and

limitations as well as the future strategy of Ethiopia’s coffee sector. The meeting was led by higher

government officials including Minister of Agriculture and President of SNNPR region.

In Country Partner Selection and Training: After a public solicitation process, METAD Plc was

selected as the in-country partner (ICP) to carry out coffee grading and certification services under

the Q program of the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI). The Oromia Coffee Farmer Cooperative Union

was also selected as a partner to receive samples for grading. Both organizations received training to

grade coffee according to internationally accepted standards of the Specialty Coffee Association of

America (SCAA) and issue Q certificates for coffee lots that will be promoted to international buyers.

Ethiopia Coffee Mapping and Profiling Project: A team of international experts and researchers

led by CQI travelled to the Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) to exchange information with

AGP AMDe regional staff and JARC experts. The purpose of this visit was to identify tools that will

enable accurate quality mapping for scientific and marketing purposes. The meeting laid the

groundwork for a national strategy for a coffee profiling program that could be announced at the 2016

World Coffee Conference of the International Coffee Organization (ICO). The strategy includes: 1)

Environmental: To identify historic weather information from various sources and perform a cluster

analysis of the regions; 2) Collect and analyze the sensorial profile database at ECX; 3) Select coffee

samples according to the clustering analyses, taking the main characteristic of the coffee product from

the main coffee regions, using a statistical approach; and 4) Perform coffee y product physical, sensorial

and biochemical analyses. The national strategy will be submitted jointly by the expert team along with

the Ethiopia coffee industry before February 2015.

Farm to Market Showcase: The Farm to Market Showcase Initiative was launched with members

of the Ethiopian Coffee Growers, Producers and Exporters Association (ECGPEA) to assist private

farms to gain access to the specialty coffee market through a series of training and promotion activities

focused on quality improvement and market linkage. The objective is to match the corresponding

international quality standards hoping for a better share of the market and price. In a training to launch

the initiative, 19 members of the association signed an agreement for collaboration to participate with

AGP-AMDe and CQI in the international/national promotion and contests by supplying information,

support and coffee samples necessary for Ethiopia’s coffee representation at these events.

Q Grader Training and Assistant Instructor Mentorship: Q Grader training and calibration

supports the continued strength of the Q program and overall adherence to international quality

standards in Ethiopia. Eight new students, eight retakes and 20 calibration students participated in the

December 2014 training. Two new Q Graders earned certification and 12 Q Graders successfully

renewed their certificates.

New Coffee Seedling Production: As per the GoE plan to double coffee production, AGP-AMDe

plans to increase coffee production and productivity by supporting the primary cooperatives and

common interest groups in planting and replacing old unproductive coffee fields with new, disease

resistance, high yielding seedlings.

In Oromia, with the support of innovation grant fund from AGP-AMDe, three primary cooperatives

of the Limmu Inarea FCU (Andode, Atnago and Bufete Gibe) received 550kg of improved seed from


the Jimma Research Center. Seedlings are under germination and soil preparation for filling the poly

bags is underway. About 1.6 million coffee seedlings are expected from the nursery.

In the SNNPR, technical and financial support were given to six common interest groups (CIG)—four

new and two existing—organized in coffee seedling production in Kaffa Bench and Sheka zones. The

six nursery sites expect to grow 1,000,000 seedlings by the end of the year. This activity has created

jobs for 70 permanent members of the CIG’s, of which most are youth and female.

Analysis of the Coffee Value Chain

Ethiopia‘s coffee production and export performance continues to face various challenges which limit

the economic opportunities for the country‘s estimated five million smallholder coffee farmers. The

year-end performance of coffee exports did not reach the government‘s targets. The problem is largely

attributed to low international coffee prices at the beginning of the year and increasing illegal trade

throughout the country, which affected the volume of coffee traded centrally through ECX. In order

to tackle this, the government of Ethiopia started to take action to identify the root causes of the

problem and enforce appropriate measure.

USAID AGP-AMDe‘s support to cooperatives, individual farmers and CIG‘s in producing new

improved varieties of coffee seedlings in collaboration with research centers plays a significant role.

The various technical, agronomic, and management trainings provided have resulted in improving

farmer income.

The majority of Ethiopia‘s coffee cannot be traced back to the producing communities, to the washing

stations, or to the collection stations. The traceability gap strongly limits the ability of private exporters

to compete internationally, both in specialty as well as in mainstream markets and to earn sustainable

premiums for Ethiopia‘s supply of fine coffees. As in previous years, most exporters and buyers

continue to complain about the ongoing, lot-to-lot quality inconsistencies due to pooling the same

coffee contract category together in the ECX warehouses.

USAID AGP-AMDe is working with ECX to prepare for the implementation of a traceability system,

which is expected to facilitate the trading of certified coffees and significantly increase sales and exports

to large importers and roasters who in past years have demanded an increased availability of traceable

coffee lots.

USAID AGP-AMDe continues to work with the Ethiopian government and with key coffee sector

stakeholders to lay the foundation for a more competitive industry. Ongoing work to address

structural capacity issues and to build a leaner, more efficient, quality-focused system through capacity-

building in supporting the sector by organizing international tradeshows and conferences to help

ensure higher prices in export markets.


Coffee VC: Key Events Undertaken, October – December 2014

DateName of Event Event Type Location Total Male Femal

eResponsibleStaff

Partners

Oct. 7 ECX Lab EquipmentOfficial HandoverCeremony

Ceremony Hawassa Bisrat EVanessa AdamsMarcelo P

ECX

Oct. 19-23 SIAL Paris Food Show Trade show ParisFrance

Bisrat ErmiasVanessa A

Oromia Coffee Farmerscoop union

Oct. 27-28 ToT Training on QualityCoffee Production

Training Jimma 36 34 2 Alemayhu T Oromia regional, zonaland woreda experts,ECX, Jimma Researchcentre

Nov. 5 Women in Coffee Day Workshop AddisAbaba

47 6 39 Kimbely E, VanessaA, Rahel T, HibretA.

Hivos (NL), InternationalTrade Centre (ITC)

Nov. 6-7 3rd Annual EthiopianCoffee Conference

Conference AddisAbaba

350+ Shelby C. Nyakio NBisrat E. Vanessa A

Ethiopian CoffeeExporters Association(ECEA)

Nov. 12-14 ToT for lead farmers onPHH

Training Jimma,Bonga,Bedele,Gimbi

43 42 1 Kasu Kebede ,Alemayhu T

FCUs, PCs , coopagency , coffee farmers

Nov. 03-04 SMFM Post-harvesthandling (PHH) training

Training Gedebtown

110 97 13 Kilil Mesfin METAD PLC

Nov. 24-29 SMFM managementtraining

Training Dilla 21 21 Kilil Mesfin Yirgacheffe FCU

PHH cascade training Training Gedeb,Bula,Decha /SouthBench

2272 1520 752 Kilil Mesfin Bench Maji, Keffa &Yirgachefe FCU


Nov. 10- 12Research meeting to designplan for Ethiopia coffeemapping and profiling project

Meeting Jimma 20 14 6Kilil M.Alemayhu T

Ethiopian Institute for AgriculturalResearch (EIAR), Jimma AgriculturalResearch Center (JARC)

Nov. 13

Experiences in CoffeeProfiling, Mapping andMarketing (Guatemalaexample)

Meeting Addis Ababa 29 24 5

Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association(ECEA), Ethiopian Coffee Growers,Producers and Exporters Association(ECGPEA), Ministry of Trade, EthiopianCommodity Exchange (ECX)

Dec. 15 ICP Training Training Addis Ababa 3 2 1 Marcelo P METAD Plc

Dec. 16 - 20 Q Grader CourseTrainingand Test

Addis Ababa 10 5 5 Marcelo P Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)

Dec. 16 – 20 Q Grader Re-takes Testing Addis Ababa 7 3 4 Marcelo P Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)

Dec. 18 Farm to Market ShowcaseWorkshop

Addis Ababa 31 20 11 Alemayhu TEthiopian Coffee Growers, Producersand Exporters Association (ECGPEA)

Dec. 23-25National coffee daycelebration

Bonga 400+

Bisrat E,Kilil MesfinAlemayhu TVanessa A

MoA, SNNPR BoA

Dec. 21 Q Grader Calibration Test Addis Ababa 19 11 8 Marcelo P Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)


Coffee VC: Partners and Interventions during the October – December 2014

Partners Location (Woreda,Region)

Interventions during theQuarter

Major Results Observed

Ethiopian Coffee ExportersAssociation (ECEA)

National ECEA conferenceAFCA ConferenceSCAA Conference

Ongoing collaborations for the organizationof international trade shows and the annualECEA conference.

Ethiopian Commodity Exchange National Pricing analysis (Judy Ganes)Support for lab certifications and grantfor lab equipmentTraceability

Ethiopian Institute forAgricultural Research (EIAR)

National Research meeting to design plan forEthiopia coffee mapping and profilingproject

Strategy planning

Jimma Agricultural ResearchCenter (JARC)

Jimma, Oromia Seedling productionResearch meeting to design plan forEthiopia coffee mapping and profilingproject

Strategy planning

Ministry of Trade National AFCA, SCAA conferencesMilan Expo

Trade promotion

Ministry of Agriculture National Agronomy trainings & seedlingproduction

Agronomy training & trade promotion

Oromia Coffee FarmersCooperative Union

Oromia, National Trade promotionWashing station grantsSMFM Trainings

Market linkage, Grant support

Yirgacheffe Coffee FarmersCooperative Union

SNNPR, National washing station grantsTrade promotion

Market linkage, grant support

Sidama Coffee FarmersCooperative Union

Sidama, SNNPR Market promotion


Limu Inara Coffee FarmersCooperative Union

Limu, Oromia Market PromotionSMFM TrainingSeedling production

Market linkage,

Damota Woleyta Coffee FarmersCooperative Union

Sidama, SNNPR Market Promotion Market linkage & Organizational development

Kaffa Coffee FarmersCooperative Union

Kaffa, Oromia Market PromotionSMFM TrainingSeedling production

Market linkage

METAD Plc Addis Ababa Grant support for washing station Organizational development

Bench Maji Coffee FarmersCooperative Union

Market PromotionSMFM TrainingSeedling production

Market linkage


Coffee VC: Activity Tracker (Gantt chart) October – December 2014

Activity DescriptionIndicatorUnit

Y4Target

Q2 (Oct. - Dec. 2014) Cumulative Q1 + Q2

Reason for VarianceTarget

AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

Market promotion and linkages

Implement phase one Tractabilityproject including roll out at threecoffee site and at the respectivewashing stations

Value &volume oftraceablecoffee sold

3 3 3 40% 3 3 40%

ECX price & Quality standardanalysis

reliable andtransparentstandardsestablished

2 2 2 75% 2 2 75% Price analysiscompleted &presented to ECX.Profile mappingmeetings held

Int'l trade show promotion: Supportsector to participate in internationaltrade shows - AFCA, SCAA(including technical support forECEA to make Ethiopia portraitcountry in 2015 show), and 1 otherinternational

B2B meeting,marketslinkages,export value &volume

3 Planned for Q3 & Q4

Trade missions to follow up ontrade show participation togetherwith associations and exporters(Tractability project site visit &selected buyers visit)

Marketslinkages,export value &volume

2

Capacity building to host ICO 2016conference. Technical support andSite visit to next ICO conference

SuccessfulICOconference,brandplacement

1 1 1 100%

Support annual ToH competition toidentify & encourage best lots ofcoffee & promote them accordingly

identify bestlot of coffee

1 1 3 300% Planned for Q3



Y4Target



AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

New technologies andmanagement practicesComplete establishment of certifiedcupping labs in Hawassa, Dilla andJimma to improve ECX qualitymanagement system

Increasedquality, price &gross margin

3 3 3 100%

Multi-stakeholder meeting facilitatedonce a year in each region to updatestakeholders on project progressand ensure B2B connections

Marketchallenges,constraints &solutionsidentified

1

Through innovation grant fundintroduce new seedlings throughnursery establishment with PC andCIGs

Production,productivity &qualityimproved

1,000,000 0 600,000 1,000,000 2,600,000 260%

Implement seedling distribution andplanting strategy to introduce newseedlings through nurseryestablishment with PC and CIGs(continuing into year 3, 4 and 5)

# of Seedlingsdistributed 1,000,000

0 0 1,000,000 1,350,000 135%

Conduct Q grader training andcalibration courses using the Qgrader system

Transparent,consistent &reliablegrading andpricing system

36 18 36 200% 18 36 200%

Completion of grant awards,washing stations, SCAA certification(In-Kind for 3 Lab Equipment),

Improvedpost-harvesthandling

12 4 5 125% 12 13 108% Wet mill for 5 FCU’s& 3 ECX labs,Oromia 1certification,Yirgachefe 3, Keffa 1

Capacity building



Y4Target



AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

Through the innovation grant fund:1) capacitate ECEA to recruitindustry best practice experience, 2)assist in organizing an annualinternational conference - SupportECEA to host an effective, highimpact conference & training formembers

# of eventattendants

300 300 375 125% 300 375 125%

Facilitate the proper handover anddistribution of grading equipment’sprocured for partner FCUs in kindgrant

# of FCUs&PCs received

6 6 6 100% 6 6 100%

Conduct SMFM agricultural PHHtraining of training to farmertrainers/lead farmers and cascade(only where necessary)

# of trainees5,000

3095 5000 3173 63%

Conduct SMFM managementtraining (gender focused leadership,record keeping, business planningand marketing) to cooperativeleaders and staff

# of trainees 190 90 21 23% 90 21 23%

Quality improvement training inharvesting and processing for wetand natural processing- Dry Mill Jul-Sept- Harvesting- Processing and Drying Beds- Dry Milling at the farm and exportlevel

# of peopletrained

200 100 69 69% 100 69 69%

Strengthen the capacity of MoA,marketing and cooperative bureausand FCA to deliver training on

# of Trainings 120 120 125 104%



Y4Target



AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

primary marketing, quality coffee,seedling production and other goodagricultural practices

Roaster training to grow internalconsumption and for qualityassurance at cupping labs

# of trainees 20 Planned for Q4


Sesame Value Chain

Overview

Ethiopia is fourth in production and second in exports on the sesame global market. Better financial

services, improving marketing and allowing buyers to buy directly from producers has improved the overall

production and sales of sesame and sesame-based products like tahini.

In 2012/13, Ethiopia exported a volume of 222,705 MT worth USD 390.6mn and in 2013/14 a volume of

269,221 MT worth 618.3mn USD, a 20 percent increase in volume and a 58 percent increase in value.

In 2014/15, the first five months, July to November 2014, Ethiopia reported sales of 72,934 MT in volume

worth USD 148.7 million. The sales indicate that Ethiopian sesame is in high demand and prices are high.

Stakeholders must work hard to maintain the status as emerging countries also produce sesame.

AGP-AMDe is working with partners MoA and the regional bureaus’ extension and input departments,

Federal and Regional Research Centers to increase production and productivity of sesame by introducing

new technologies for popularization supported by good agriculture practices, demo sites and field days.

AGP-AMDe trains key personnel in cooperative management, finance and record keeping as well as in

warehouse management and quality grading through SMFM training program in order to minimize post-

harvest losses, scale up farmer capacity and improve the skills of PCs and FCUs management and board

members. AGP-AMDe trains PC and FCU managers and staff in international marketing and supports their

participation in international trade fairs and links them with international buyers. AGP-AMDe also

supports the Ethiopian Pulses, Oil Seeds and Spices Processors and Exporters Association (EPOSPEA) in

recruiting, marketing information systems and assist in organizing international conferences.


A total of 8,296 MT at a value of USD 12.8 million were purchased from producers through their primary

cooperatives (Table 1). Of the total, Dansha Aurora, Setit Humera, Kafta Humera Seed Producer and

Sales Cooperative (KHSPSC) and the Tigray Marketing Federation (TMF) exported 2,055 MT, which is

valued at USD 4,289,287 to China (75%), Turkey (25%) and Israel (5%).

Sesame purchases and exports by Farmer Cooperative Unions (FCUs)

FCU Purchase in

MT

Purchase in

USD

Export in

MT

Export in

USD

Remark

Selam 1,150 1,673,135 - - Not yet exported due to low

Int. market demand & price

Metema 1,440 2,137,968 - - Not yet exported due to low

Int. market demand & priceTsehay 700 989,289 - - 60 MT is sold to ECX

Admas 250 336,788 - - 35 MT is sold to ECX

Dansha Aurora 973 1,514,115 380 817,000 270.3 MT is sold to ECX

Setit Humera 650 1,038,291 649 1,370,650

L. Welkayit 523 774,244 - - Will be delivered to TMF

Tekeze 190 161,354 - - Will be delivered to TMF

Feleg 20 29,608 - - Will be delivered to TMF


FCU Purchase in

MT

Purchase in

USD

Export in

MT

Export in

USD

Remark

KHSPSC 1,600 2,901,554 589 1,169,735

TMF 300 507,564 300 931,902 Includes 137 from previous

yearTMF - - 137 From previous year purchase

SGFCF 500 777,205 - - Not yet exported due to low

Int. market demand & price

Total 8,296 12,841,115 2,055 4,289,287

NB: 1 USD @ Birr 19.3 rate

Access to Loans: Farmer cooperative unions and federations received USD 19.2million loan from banks,

such as the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), and the Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO).

Loans requested and approved for sesame marketing in Q2.

FCUs/ Marketing

Federation

Requested in

USD

Approved Utilized Source of the

loan

Oromia MF 5,699,481.87 - - CBO

Metema 2,072,538.86 2,072,538.86 2,072,538.86 CBE

Selam 2,072,538.86 2,072,538.86 2,072,538.86 CBE

Tsehay 2,072,538.86 2,072,538.86 1,036,269.43 CBE

Dansha Aurora 1,606,217.62 1,606,217.62 1,606,217.62 CBE

Setit Humera 2,072,538.86 2,072,538.86 2,072,538.86 CBE

Lemlem welkayit 1,554,404.15 1,554,404.15 1,554,404.15 CBE

Tekeze 414,507.78 414,507.78 414,507.78 CBE

Fere Kalsi PC 51,813.48 51,813.48 51,813.48 SACCO

Admas 1,554,404.15 1,554,404.15 -- CBE

Tigray MF 3,886,010.37 3,886,010.37 3,886,010.37 CBE

SRFCMF 6,217,616.58 3,108,808.29 3,108,808.29 CBE

KHSPSC 1,347,150.26 1,347,150.26 1,347,150.26 CBE

Total 21,813,471.51 19,222,797.93 -



Capacity Building: During the reporting period, AGP-AMDe supported five post-harvest handling ToT

and cascading training for 2,977 producers. In addition, the program organized two field days attended by

256 participants, as well as a series of conferences and workshops for sesame partners attended by 522

participants.


Sell More For More Training: Provided Sell More For More post-harvest handling (PHH) ToT training

to 2,923 (657 women) in Amhara, Tigray and Oromia Regional States in Metema, Tach Armachiho,

Tsegede, Kafta Humera, Asegede Tsimbla and Nekemte woredas. Participants came from the Selam,

Metema, Dansha Aaurora, Setit Humera, Feleg and Gibe Dedesa FCUs. The trainers were model farmers,

and district agents that were trained in PHH TOT with close supervision from AGP-AMDe and

government officials.

Provided SMFM management training in Shire, Tigray to 34 participants (2 women) from Feleg, Dansha,

Setit Humera FCUs from Asgede Tisimbla, Tsegede and Kafta Humera woredas. The training provides

skills in managing membership, domestic and international marketing and finance/record keeping, for the

benefit to their member farmers.

Quality and Grading Equipment/Training: AGP-AMDe

delivered 18 sets of quality grading equipment to nine major

sesame producing and marketing partner FCUs and 21 affiliated

PCs (Setit Humera, Dansha Aurora, Lemlem Welkayit, Tekeze,

Metema, Selam, Tsehay, Admas and KHSPSC) in Tigray and

Amhara.

The program provided training in Gonder and Wukro for 20 (6

women) representatives from the participating FCUs and

affiliated PCs staff who work in management, marketing,

purchase, sales and store keeping. The training familiarized

participants with the equipment and how to solve disputes

between suppliers and purchasers in quality grading. The new

skills will enable them to produce, buy and export good quality

sesame to niche markets like US, Europe and Japan.

Field Days: Two field days were organized, one in Metema, Amhara and another in Humera, Tigray to

support the technology transfer of sesame seed varieties Humera 1 and Setit 1. In addition, farmers learned

improved skills in applying blended fertilizer and planting in rows. Agricultural experts, district agents and

other partners were on hand for 256 (84 female) participants. Due to excess rainfall local varieties have

been adversely affected and a decline in production expected. The performance of the improved varieties

have resisted the unfavorable rainfall.

Training using the inspection and gradingequipment.


During the field day, post-harvest handling was demonstrated by

using plastic layers below hillas to reduce loss while drying in the

shattering process and trashing; condensing hillas in specific

spots, instead at scattered arrangements, tying up the hillas with

thread/rope to protect from wind damage.

Conferences and Workshops

AGP-AMDe sponsored EPOSPEA’s 4th International

Conference under the theme of Global Partnership for Sustainable

Market Growth, held in Addis Ababa November 12-13, 2014. In

attendance were 70 international buyers from Europe, US,

Middle East and Asia, 102 EPOSPEA members, 96 non-member exporters, and 153 invited guests from

government and non-government organizations. There were presentations from local and foreign

participants on global and local sesame production and market trends in order to create a better picture

for buyers and exporters. There were also meetings between delegates and exporters, in the hopes of

creating future business deals.

The SIAL, one of the world’s largest food

conferences, took place in Paris from October 18 -

25, 2014, and AGP-AMDe sponsored Metema and

Dansha Aurora FCUs (sesame and coffee growers)

as well as the Erer FCU, which grows chickpea to

participate at the trade show. The FCU managers

gained experience in networking with big buyers.

At the show, they established several relationship

for future business.

AGP AMDe conducted a business to business

meeting in Shire, Tigray to support sesame partners

with relationships, market information

dissemination, and quality inspection at ECX for

better and timely sesame purchases and sales.

Field day at Kafta Humera Woreda, Rawian Kebele at Mebrahtu Weldetensae Farm

The Traditional way and proper harvestingand Bandel/Hilla Formation

SIAL Ethiopian Booth and Group Picture with the Ethiopian

Ambassador in France.


There were 14 (2 female) participants from Dansha Aurora, Setit Humera, Lemlem Welkayit, Tekeze and

Feleg FCUs and four PCs from Kafta Humera FCU, TMF, KHSPSC and ECX.

Sesame Working Group: The working group is composed of members from the federal and regional

cooperative agencies, MoT, ATA, USAID AGP AMDe, Agritera, Amhara, Tigray, Oromia and SNNPR

Marketing Federations and sesame exporting FCUs: Metema, Selam, Tsehay, Setit Humera, Dansha Aurora

and KHSPSC. Two workshops were organized in Gonder for 80 (3 female) participants in the quarter.

The main activities supported by the working group include: evaluate the performance of the 2013/14

sesame purchases and exports; identify major challenges and opportunities; support loan guarantees and

implementation and scaling up the capacity of their management; provide a delegation to FCU managers

in the purchase and export processes and decision; create a 2014/15 action plan; identify and assign

responsibilities of each supportive government and non-government institution; and deliver support

through the technical and senior management for effective and successful results.

Seed Multiplication: Through seed multiplication activities, 115 farmers produced a total of 142.5 MT

of improved seed on 500ha, which has been certified by the Amhara and Tigray Seed Laboratory and

Quarantine Department. The seed will be sold to Selam and Tsehay FCUs and the ESE Tigray Branch and

will be planted on 35,541ha of land farmed by 17,771 farmers.

The yield has been low due to damage by excess rain. In the 2013/14 seed multiplication crop season, 76

MT was planted in Tigray, Amhara and SNNPR on 18,989 ha farmed by 28,610 farmers. The improved

seeds produced 7,596 MT in 2014/15.

Sesame Production and Marketing in SNNPR: The SNNPR region has potential for 210,000 ha of

land for sesame production with possibilities of producing twice a year in the Belg and Meher rainy seasons,

which is unique to other growing areas in Ethiopia. Sesame farmers cultivated 54,662MT of sesame on

78,089 ha in the 2014/15 crop season. A total of 45,000 MT is for market and the remaining 18 percent

will be consumed locally. During the assessment the following challenges were identified as areas that

need support:

- Low capacity in good agriculture practices, post-harvest handling, quality and export

marketing.

- Low access to pre and basic seed for seed multiplication.

- Low availability of improved sesame seed of C1 for sesame production.

- Lack of linkage with key players in sesame research, multiplication, dissemination, extension

services and Marketing.

Based on the assessment, linkages are being developed between Humera ARC and the southern region

for the purchase of basic and pre basic sesame seed for the 2015/16 seed multiplication season. A market

linkage is also being developed with OLAM, a Singapore-based company with a branch office in Ethiopia,

Federation Marketing Manager and OLAM CountryRepresentative discuss in Adama.


and the Southern Region Farmers’ Cooperative Marketing Federation. The federation plans to export

approximately 1,000MT and has purchased 500MT of Wellega-type sesame. The company took a sample

from their warehouse located in Adama and is willing to buy more and develop future business.

Analysis of the Sesame Value Chain

Challenges

- This is the period when sesame is harvested and prepared for marketing through primary

cooperatives (PCs) to farmers’ cooperative unions (FCUs) and further exported to the

international market either directly or through ECX.

- Ethiopian sesame production is totally dependent on rain. The 2014/15 crop was not good due to

excess and untimely rain and some of the producers have re-planted their plots with sorghum,

especially in the major sesame growing areas: the north and northwest of Ethiopia, in Amhara and

Tigray. Due to this effect, it is predicted that sesame production and quality will decline. From

ECX data recorded between October and December 2014, 70 percent of the sesame inspected

and delivered to their store is grade 4 & 5, while in 2013/14 during the same period, 74 percent

of the store was the grade 2 & 3. In contrary, the big producers of India, China and Sudan have a

larger store of bumper crops, which is expected to be around 1.5 million tons. The competition

is a big challenge to Ethiopian producers who expect to produce around 350,000 MT.

- In 2013/14 India imported Ethiopian sesame. China, Turkey and Middle Eastern Countries were

also buying from Ethiopia at a good price, even though at the end the demand and price were in

decline. This year the international sesame demand from Ethiopia is lower than the previous years.

The price is also low, USD 1,595-1,650 per MT for Humera/Gonder type and USd 1,533-1,600

per MT for Wellega type. Last year, from October 2013 to April 2014, the price hovered around

USd 2,400 - 2,500. Due to the price fluctuation, Ethiopian exporters face problems finding

potential buyers.

- Even though the coverage of improved sesame seed is not more than one percent (MoA 2013),

the Regional Bureaus of Agriculture are not creating awareness and extension efforts to

encourage producers and cooperatives to buy and disseminate improved seed that is produced

with the support of AGP-AMDe and Agricultural Research Centers.

ECX, Price for Humera/Gonder and Wellega type on January 05, 2014.

Grade Humera Gonder Metema Nekemte/Wellega

Grade 3 1,488.31 1,468.40 1,453.46 1,383.78

Grade 4 1,473.37 1,458.44 1,433.55 1,358.89


As the price goes down, 80 percent of the sales are destined for China, indicating that the market is

dominated by one major player.


CBE International Banking Dep. registered price for Humera/Gonder type sesame as of January 5, 2014.

Price in

USD/MT FOB

Quantity in MT Destination

Humera/Gonder Type

1,630 570 Israel

1,650 380 China

1,595 190 China

1,630 380 China

1,600 190 China

1,620 190 China

1,620 380 China

Price in

USD/MT FOB

Quantity in MT Destination

Wellega Type

1,533 190 China

1,600 380 China

Opportunities

- Sesame is produced in nearly every region and land coverage is increasing.

- Processors are allowed agro processing loans and to buy directly from producers to minimize

quality problems.

- The four constructed ware houses and the integrated support from government and AGP

AMDe to FCUs and Regional Marketing Federations on access to finance has improved the

transaction in sesame purchase and export.

- AGP AMDe supports FCUs and Regional Marketing Federations to participate at

international trade shows and EPOSPEA to improve services by hiring a marketing staff.

- Supply of quality inspection and grading equipment and training will improve the sesame value

chain.


Sesame VC: Key Activities Undertaken, October – December 2014

DateName of Event

Location (city,

Woreda,

region/country)

Value

Chain/Cross

Cutting Area

Total Male FemaleName(s) of AMDe Team

Attending

Name of Partner

Organizations

Oct. 4 - 6,

2014

Cascading training of

SMFM PHH training

Asgede Tsinbla,

Dansha & Humera

Sesame/PHH 1,288 1,150 138 Hailekiros Tadele Office of agriculture,

FCUs, PCs

Oct. 6, 2014 Sesame Working Group Gonder Sesame 59 56 3 Gebru Desta, ,Teferi

Wondale & Teka Reda

F&RCPA, RMF, ATA,

AGP AMDe, Agritera,

C4C & FCUs

Oct. 9, 2014 Sesame seed

multiplication field day

Agamwuha, Quara Sesame 79 64 15 Getasew and Melaku Quara woredaOARD,developmentagents, Quara woredaadministration, Kebelleadministration, QuaraAGP FP,North Gondarseed laboratory, TsehayFCU,Metema FCU,Smallscale and large scalefarmers

Oct. 15 - 19,

2014

PHH Cascading Training Nekemt Sesame 640 320 320 Yonas FCUs, PCs and DAs

Oct. 18 -25,

2014

SIAL/France Paris Sesame,

Coffee,

Honey &

Chick Pea

7 7 0 Bisrat Ermias MOT,MOA, MOFA, AGP

AMDe& F&RCA

Oct. 19, 2014 Farmers field day Rawyan(K/Humera) Sesame 177 108 69 Gebru Desta,Tadese

Teweldebrhan,Hailekiros

Tadele

FCUs, Office of

Agriculture, Lead

farmers, HARC,

Administration offices

Nov. 12 & 13,

2014

4th EPOSPEA

International

Conference

Addis Ababa Oil seeds,

Pulses &

Spices

421 370 51 Vanessa Adams, Tadele

Gelan, Teka Reda, Bisrat

Ermias & Mesfin Terefe

MOT, AGP AMDe,EPOSPEA,


DateName of Event

Location (city,

Woreda,

region/country)

Value

Chain/Cross

Cutting Area


Attending

Name of Partner

Organizations

Nov. 12, 2014 PHH SMFM TOT

Training

Gonder Sesame 40 39 1 Getasew MetemaOARD,MirabArimachiho OARD,Selam FCU, MetemaFCU, Mirab Arimachihocooperative promotionoffice, Metemacooperative promotionoffice, North Gondarcooperative promotionoffice, Terefe workprimary coop, Angerebprimary coop ,Wubitugabla primary coop,DAs, Mender 6,7,8primary coop, LeadFarmers

Nov. 23 ,2014 PHH SMFM Cascading Abrihajira,

Korhumer, and

Mirab Armachiho

Sesame 879 762 117 Getasew Mirab ArimachihoOARD, MirabArimachiho cooperativepromotion office,Kebelle administration,Terefework primarycoop,Angereb primarycoop, small scale andlarge scale farmers

Nov. 24, 2014 On Job training on

grading quality

equipment and their

operation

Sanja Sesame 12 8 4 Getasew Masero Denb primarycoop, Godebe abderafiprimary coop, FanaSoreka primary coop,Selam FCU

Nov.25, 2014 Business to Business

meeting

Shire Sesame 14 13 1 Gebru Desta,Teka

Reda,Leake G/selama

FCUS, TMF, PCs, ECX


DateName of Event

Location (city,

Woreda,

region/country)

Value

Chain/Cross

Cutting Area


Attending

Name of Partner

Organizations

Nov. 26-29,

2014

SMFM Management

Training

Shire Sesame 34 32 2 Atakilti

Ambachew,Leake

G/selama

PCs & FCUs

Nov. 26, 2014 PHH SMFM Cascading

training

Das Gundo,

Metema

Sesame 183 165 18 Getasew Metema cooperativepromotion office,Metema FCU,Dasgundo coop,Development agents,Kebelle administration,small scale and largescale farmers

Nov. 27, 2014 On Job training on

grading quality

equipment and their

operation

Gendawuha,

Metema

Sesame 8 6 2 Getasew Gendawuha Brishignprimary coop, Kokitprimary coop, Mender6,7,8 coop,Kumer coop,Metema FCU,Gelegucoop, Shinfa coop

Dec. 22, 2014 Sesame Working Group Gonder Sesame 21 20 1 Teka Reda and Teferi

Wondale

F&RCPA, RMF, ATA,

AGP AMDe, Agritera,

C4C & FCUs


Sesame VC: Partners and Interventions: October – December 2014


Interventions during thequarter

Explain observed major results

Selam FCU Tachi & Mirab Arimachiho,Tegede woreda

- Grant provided, delivered PHH ToTand cascading training and on-jobtraining on quality equipment

- Participated in international trade show

- Post-harvest losses is high in sesame areas, trainedfarmers to gain knowledge on how to minimizePHH losses and upgrading quality.

- Quality analysis and product knowledge prior tomarketing

- B2B linkage was created with internationalbuyers

Tsehay FCU Gondar Participation in field day Technology demonstration

Metema FCU Metema woreda - Provided grant, delivered PHH ToTand cascading training and on-jobtraining on quality equipment

- Field day participation- International trade show participation

- Post-harvest losses is high in sesame areas, andfarmers gained knowledge on how to minimizePHH losses and upgrading quality.

- doing quality analysis and knew their productquality prior to market and increase theirbargaining power

- B2B linkage was created with internationalbuyers

- Technology demonstration

Quara AGP Quara Woreda Participation in field day Technology demonstrated

North Gondar SeedLaboratory

Gondar Participation in field day Technology demonstrated

Terefe Work. Angereb,Wubitu Gabla cooperative

Mirab Arimachiho Woreda PHH ToT and cascading training wasdelivered

Post-harvest losses is high in sesame areas andfarmers has gained knowledge on how to minimizePHH losses and upgrading quality.

Office of Agriculture andRural Development

Mirab Arimachiho & Metema PHH ToT and cascading training Knowledge gained from training and they areequipped to transfer this to farmers

Quara Undertook seed multiplication and fielddays

The importance and relevance of the technologywas demonstrated

Das Gundo, Mender 6, 7 ,8Cooperative

Metema woreda HH ToT and cascading training wasdelivered

Post-harvest losses is high in sesame areas andfarmers has gained knowledge on how to minimizePHH losses and upgrading quality





Masero Denb, GodebeAbderafi cooperative

Mirab Arimachiho woreda On the job training was provided ongranted quality equipment and how tomake quality analysis by them

- Most cooperatives became familiar with post-harvest losses and work on minimizing it

- They are doing quality analysis of their product bythemselves and reduce cost so as to increasetheir bargaining power

Fana Soreka Cooperative Tsegede On the job training was provided ongranted quality equipment and how tomake quality analysis by them

Gendawuha Brishigncooperative

Gendawuha On –job training was provided ongranted quality equipment and how tomake quality analysis by them

Cooperative promotion office Mirab Arimachiho, Metemaand N. Gonder

PHH tot and cascading training Knowledge has gained on the training and they areequipped to transfer to the farmers

Kokit, Kumer Aftit, Gelegu,Shinfa cooperative

Metema and Gendewuha On –job training was provided ongranted quality equipment and how tomake quality analysis by them

- Most cooperatives became familiar with post-harvest losses and work on minimizing it

- They are doing quality analysis of their product bythemselves and reduce cost so as to increasetheir bargaining power

Netsanet Seed cooperative Rawyan, K/Humera, westernTigray

The cooperative is involved in the AGPAMDe seed multiplication program 23ha

The importance of the technology wasdemonstrated on field days that created awarenessto the member SHF on the importance of thetechnology and ready for implementation.

Walta seed cooperative, EgrilMitkal, Hadnet cooperative

Maikadra, K/Humera,western Tigray

Egri Mitkal Tsegede, Western Zone

Hadnet seed cooperative Hadnet

Desta Berhe Farm Shelela (Maykadra),KaftaHumera, western zone

Involved in seed multiplication on 100ha Demonstrated technologies at field days and createdawareness to the member commercial farmers onthe importance of the technology and are ready forimplementation

Setit humera FCu Setit humera, western zoneof tigray

4 Member pcs (Hintset, Maebel, lemlem& shewit) were involved in SMFM PHHToT training

Knowledge gained from training and they areequipped to transfer this to farmers





Dansha FCU Dansha,Tsegede, Westernzone of Tigray

3 Member pcs (Alemgenet, Maidele &Hadnet) were involved in SMFM PHHToT training

Feleg FCU Endabaguna, Asgedetsinbla,North western ofTigray

5 Member pcs (Dedebit, Selam,Adimehameday, Hitsats & Rahwa) wereinvolved in SMFM PHH ToT

EPOAPEA Addis Ababa 4th International Conference and MIS staffrecruiting

70 international buyers, 198 exporters and 153invited guests participated and was successful.

Metema FCU

Dansha Aurora

Metema/ North Gonder

Sanja/Tach Armachiho

Participation in SIAL/Paris and EPSPEA 4th

Int. Conference as well bank loan for USDfacilitated

Experience share, sample and business card exchange

Tseahy, Gibe Dehdesa, BunoBedele FCUs

Participation at EPSPEA 4th Int.Conference and Bank loan facilitated

Experience share, sample and business cardexchange, and bought 700mt of sesame

Setit Humera, Tekeze, LemlemWelkayit

Humera/ Tigray Bank loan facilitated Experience share, sample and business card exchange

TMF Mekelle/Humera, Tgray New sesame cleaning machine installationprocess and bank loan for 3.9 millionfacilitated and B2B training

Experience share, sample and business cardexchange, and bought 300mt and exported 437mt ofsesame (The difference is carried over stock of lastyear)

SRFCMF

Admas

KHSPSC

Hawassa/SNNPR

Enjiara/Amhara

Humera/Tigray

Bank loan facilitated Experience share, sample and business card exchange

Fire Kalsi Dansha/Tigray Bank loan facilitated Good relationship was developed with SACCO


Sesame VC: Activity Tracker (Gant Chart), October – December 2014

Activity DescriptionIndicator and

Unit

Y4Target

This Quarter Up to This Quarter

Reason for VarianceTarget Achieved Target Achieved

Number % Number %

Facilitate participation ininternational trade shows forkey stakeholders (SIAL &Gulfoods)

# of stakeholders 6 6 10 167 6 10 167 Additional Participantsfrom Tigray andSNNPR RegionalMarketing Federationand private exporterswere sponsored

Facilitate marketing agreementsamong FCUs, TMF, privatesesame producers, processorsand exporters to increaseexports

# of transactionsfacilitatedMT(3000MT)

5,000MT 4,250 7,508 177 5000 7,508 150 PCs to FCU and FCUsdelivered sesame to theMarketing Federationsfor export

Conduct discussion forum tolearn best practices and to makebusiness to business (B2B)connections (MSP)

# MSP 1 1 3 300 1 3 300 The two were organizedwith partnership of FCAand ATA in Gonder andone by AGP made inShire/ Tigray

New technologies and management practices 0

Provide grading equipment forPCs/FCUs (moisture tester,Sample drawer bag trier, riffletype, sample divider, gram scalewith poly scoop , hand sieveswith bottom pan and stitchingmachine)

# of sets ofequipment

28 28 18 64% 28 18 64 The distribution wasrevised as there areadditional FCUs of otherVC and the importedequipment was limited

Sesame PHLassessment/research at time ofharvest (during) of Hillas andthreshing

(# of studies withPHL loss)

3 3 - - 3 0 0 Because of excess anduntimely rain farmersharvested earlier beforeproper maturity anddrying period and was



Unit

Y4Target



Number % Number %

not favourable for theprocess

Facilitate and support theproduction of C2 seedproduction on SHF &commercial farmers, multipliedin year 3 as a C1

# FCUs andWoreda OAproducingsesame

10 5 9 180 10 14 140 Technical support andsupervision was given toadditional producers

Facilitate and support timelycollection of quality seed fromSHF and PCs & commercialfarmers based on the seedprovided, cleaning , storage,packing and certification of seed

# supports/visits 4 6 150

Conduct field days todemonstrate improvedtechnologies

# participants 450 268 256 95.5 718 438 61

Establish demonstration sites inareas of the selected Sesamepotential FCUs in collaborationwith input team

# demonstration 12 12 33 275

Seed multiplication of certifiedHumera 1 which will bepurchased from HARC

Hectare covered 500 500 500 100

Selection of seed multiplicationsites and farmers

# of FCU orfarmers

27 27 115 426

Follow up and technicalassistance of GAPs for seedmultipliers

# of visits 18 8 10 125 18 24 133 The technical support onGAP and implementationsupervision was given to



Unit

Y4Target



Number % Number %

additional seedmultipliers

Facilitate the inspection processof Seed multiplication by seedlaboratory

# of hectareinspected

625 500 482 96.4 500 482 96

Grant support to purchasecleaning machine to four FCUs(Dansha,Setit Humera ) -Pending selection by FCA

# of cleaningmachines

4 4 100 4 4 100

Capacity building

Conduct SMFM managementtraining (gender focusedleadership, record keeping,business planning and marketing)to cooperative leaders and staff- 70% done

# trainees 80 80 26 32.5 80 26 33 The balance will bedelivered in the comingquarter

provide technical training on theoperation of grading equipmentand grading techniques onsupported equipment forassigned quality technicians &store keepers at FCUs

# of FCUs 40 40 26 85% 40 26 65 The number of traineeswere based on thenumber of equipmentdelivered

Conduct technical PHH TOTfor partner FCUs & affiliatedPCs (on scientific warehousemanagement, qualitymanagement etc.)

# FCUs/PCs andtrainee

10 10 0

Conduct/Cascade SMFMagricultural/PHH, training tofarmer trainers/lead farmers(only where necessary)

2800 2800 2,990 107 2800 2990 107 The Regional VC willdeliver the data and sendit to you



Unit

Y4Target



Number % Number %

Conduct/Cascade SMFMagricultural/PHH, training tofarmer trainers/lead farmers(only where necessary)

# of trainee 30 30 30 107% 30 2,990 9967 Working with FCA todeliver the training in thenext quarter

Conduct training for FCUs,Commercial farmers, womentraders, exporters andmarketing experts in marketlinkage opportunities and exportreadiness

# trainee 30 30 30 30 0 We ar+M19e workingwith FCA to deliver thetraining in the nextquarter

Through the Enovation Grantfund, 1. Capacitate EPOSPEA torecruit Int. to STD) Sec.General, 2. Provide technicalsupport in building marketinformation system and 3. Assistin organizing an annual Int.Conference

# of assistance 3 3 2 67 3 2 67 MIS staff is hired and 4th

Int. conference issassisted, but Sec. Generalis promoted as he isqualified and have doneonly 2.

Provide TOT on PHH SMFM tolead farmers, DAs, WoredaAgricultural Experts and PCsrepresentatives

# of trainee 80 80 60 75% 80 60 75 Due to different reasons,especially as it is sesamemarket period.


Chickpea Value Chain

Overview

Chickpea is one of the major grain legumes with a unique sources of dietary protein in the developing

world where there is very scarce animal protein or unaffordable expensive otherwise. Ethiopia is

considered as one of the secondary centers of genetic diversity for chickpea.

Ethiopia is considered one of the secondary centers of genetic diversity for the chickpea. AGP-AMDe

aims to strengthen the chickpea value chain’s competitiveness through training in agronomic practices,

post-harvest handling, entrepreneurship training and field days conducted on chickpea farms. When

chickpea is harvested, AMDe’s supports FCUs to sell more chickpea to both domestic and international

buyers.


Chickpea Marketing: Erer FCU sold 480 MT of Kabuli chickpea from last year at a price of USD545/MT and earned USD 261,600. Chickpea is still at a harvest stage and next quarter is the marketingseason and AGP-AMDe will support target farmers in maketing.

Capacity building: A total of 2,965 farmers (lead farmers, smallholder farmers, cooperative staff, district

agents, women and youth) have benefited from trainings on post-harvest handling (PHH),

entrepreneurship in small scale food processing and good agricultural practices. In addition, 279 (20

female) participants attended three chickpea field days organized in Oromia and Amhara.

Licensed chickpea producers increased: During the period, supported by AGP-AMDe’s, Wodera

FCU in North Shoa obtained seed business license. Wodera also employed one agronomist as permanent

staff. Wodera joined the two previously licensed FCUs (Tsehay and Ghion) and the number of total

licensed chickpea seed suppliers in Amhara has increased to three.


Sell More For More: Post-harvest handling training is delivered to lead farmers and smallholder farmers

in the targeted areas in Amhara and Oromia regions. A total of 105 lead farmers from Tsehay, Ghion,

Wodera in Amhara and Lume, Erer, Liben and Biftu in Oromia. In the quarter, the same training was

cascaded to 2,697 farmers, reaching 63 percent of the target, of 4,250 trainees.

Group work during the chickpea PHH training in Debre Markos, Amhara inNovember.


Entrepreneurship: Aiming to enhance the entrepreneurial knowledge of the woman and youth groups

in both Amhara and Oromia regions under our partner FCUs, 54 trainees (80% women) have been trained.

The training focuses on the major traits of an entrepreneur and highlights risk taking, time management,

opportunities, planning, business relationships, customer service, self-reliance, decision making particularly

in making price decisions in relation with chickpea and the market.

Agronomic Practice TOT Training in Amhara: In collaboration with IFDC, the program delivered

agronomic practice ToT training to 25 trainees (4 female) from the woreda and kebele agricultural and

cooperative promotion offices. The majority are trainees were from the Merkeb FCU.

Chickpea Field Days: To increase farmer’s knowledge and skills on chickpea seed production and better

management practices, five field days In Amhara and Oromia regions were conducted (two in Amhara

and three in Oromia) under the Wodera, Erer, Biftu and Bale green farm. A total of 279 (20 female)

participants participated in the field day, in which more

than 85% were farmers.

Field days have helped chickpea farmers share experience

and enhance their field management knowledge on

chickpea production. The field day conducted in the Ginir

woreda in Bale, Oromia made participants realize they

could attract foreign investors. A total of 75ha of chickpea

are planted with the varieties of Ararti and ACOS

(monini).

Grading Equipment: AGP-AMDe facilitated the

distribution of 24 types of grain grading equipment to the

six selected FCUs in Oromia and Amhara. Training on the use of the equipment will be provided before

the harvest.

Seed Business License: The Wodera FCU in Amhara is the third FCU in the region to achieve a seed

business license. This means the FCU will be able to provide improved seed for the small holder farmers

in coming seasons. AGP-AMDe supported the union with business plan preparation and the hiring of an

agronomist.

Tsehay and Ghion FCU in North Gondar and East Gojjam are the other two FCUs with the license. In its

partnership with Wodera FCU, AGP-AMDe provided 8 MT of improved Ararti chickpea seed varieties.

The FCU planted the seed on 125ha of land. After the harvest, the seed will be certified by seed labs,

cleaned and packed as certified chickpea seed to be sold to chickpea farmers in the coming planting season.

Warehousing: In the period, the program provided close supervision on the construction of the 2500

MT capacity warehouse in North Gondar zone under the Tsehay FCU. Approximately 90 percent of the

warehouse has been constructed, and soon the electrical installation process will be completed. The

warehouse will house the cleaning machine as well as the crops.

Access to Finance: Except for Merkeb FCU in Amhara who will use its own capital, the remaining FCUs

have secured loans from regional banks in Amhara and Oromia worth USD 2,349,600 to purchase the

upcoming chickpea harvest in 2014/15. The loans is planned to purchase a total of 8,094 MT of chickpea,

A chickpea field day in Amhara.


of which 86 percent grain and 14 percent seed. The amount of money needed to buy all 8,094 MT is

approximately USD 3,674,690. The difference, USD 786,340.44 is expected from the FCUs. AGP-AMDe's

support for the FCUs to access additional finance is fundamental.

Trade Conference: In the quarter, Erer FCU’s manager participated in the SIAL trade show in France.

Two FCU managers from Lume and Wodera participated in the 4th EPOSPEA trade conference. The FCU

managers, who shared information about the Ethiopian chickpea market, were supported by AGP-AMDe.

Analysis of the Chickpea Value Chain

The significant increase in chickpea prices during the first quarter of the year has encouraged some of the

FCUs to release their stock at a reasonable price in the reporting quarter. Domestic exporters in the

local markets assessed a reasonable volume of kabuli chickpea in order to supply overseas markets. Erer

FCU saw the opportunity to sell 480MT of chickpea stock from last year at USD 600/MT earned

reasonable profit. The total amount of chickpea seed and grain production from the current harvest is

expected to be of good quality compared to any time of the year in the past.

AGP-AMDe’s effort to increase the competitiveness of the chickpea value chain is given due consideration

because of three major factors which are likely to drive double digit growth in domestic chickpea

consumption in the coming 3-5 years: (a) population growth and younger demographic (b) urbanization

and a switch to processed foods and (c) chickpea health benefits and cost effectiveness as a substitute for

increasingly expensive meat.

AGP-AMDe’s contribution to support smallholder farmers with improved seed varieties for the last two

years has brought tremendous results in increasing the volume of Kauli chickpea production in the nine

chickpea producing FCUs in Amhara and Oromia regions. Good trade relationship among FCUs has also

been created through the market linkage activities.

The chickpea value chain continues to face the following challenges: 1) Delay in delivery of farm

machineries by the supplier to chickpea seed producing cooperatives; 2) Lack of efficient market

information system (MIS) to better equip the farmers with timely and reliable market information; 3)

Delays in delivering grants to beneficiaries (Leye and Edget agro-processors).


Chickpea VC: Key Events Undertaken, October – December 2014

Date Name of Event Location Total Male FemaleNames of AMDe team

attendingName of partners/participnats

Oct. 5 -7 20/14 Entrepreneurshiptraining

Debrezeit, Oromia 24 13 11 National ChickpeaVC and RegionalField VC specialist

Lume Adama ,Erere,Bacho andLiben FCUs, Ideget and,Leyewomen association

Nov. 6 - 7, 2014 Field days Ejere and wajitkebele(Modjo andDebrezieit),Oromia

80 75 5 National ChickpeaVC and RegionalField VC specialist

Farmers from Erere & LumeAdama FCU, DA’s from WoredaBoA, Woreda and Zonal levelBoA officials and agronomists

Nov.25 - 27, 2014 PHH ToT Waliso, Oromia 19 19 0 Regional Field VC &PHH expert Liben FCU

Nov.29 - Dec. 1,

2014

PHH ToT Modjo, Oromia 36 31 5 Regional Field VC &PHH expert

Erere FCU,and Lume AdamaFCU

Dec.7 - 8, 2014 PHH cascading Ada Woreda,Oromia

707 418 289 Regional Field VCspecialist

Erere FCU:- at Tadecha kebeleunder Dukum PC

Dec.16. 2014 PHH training Debrezeit,Oromia

71 69 2 Regional Field VCspecialist

Chickpea farmers under ErerFCU and Agro prom,

Dec.19. 2014 Field days GinnerWoreda/BaleZone, Oromia

90 82 8 National ChickpeaVC, Input specialstand Regional FieldVC specialist

Bale green PLc, Woreda andZone BoA, agronomists from theZone and farmers in the area

Nov, 24 - 25 &27-28, 2014

SMFM-PHH TOTfor Lead Farmers

Gondar & debremarkos, Amhara

63 55 8 Chickpea FVCSpecialistField BDS Specialist

Abirjiha, Fentay, Sufankara, Naraand Mekonta PCsDembia, Chilga and TakusaWoreda Agri offices & DAsTsehay & Ghion FCUs

Nov. 25 & 28,2014

Entrepreneurship Gondar & DebreMarkos, Amhara

30 0 30 Chickpea VCSpecialist - HOChickpea FVC C

Merkeb, Tsehay, Ghion & WoderaFCUsGondar & Bahir Dar MSSE

Dec. 12, 2014 Agro-practice TOT Debre Markos,Amhara

25 21 4 Chickpea FVCSpecialistInput Specialist (IFDC)

S/wollo Zone Seed Lab, WoderaFCU3


Date Name of Event Location Total Male FemaleNames of AMDe team

attendingName of partners/participnats

Dec. 27-28, 2014 Field Day Mojana Wodera &Mortina JiruWoredas, Amhara

109 102 7 Chickpea FVCSpecialist

N/Achefer, S/Achefer, Bahir DarZuria & Fogera woreda Agri. coopprom offices, Merkeb FCUFarmers, N/shoa Zone DOA3,N/Shoa Zone CPAWoreda & kebel Administrators,Agri. Offices, Coop offices

Dec. 1 - Jan, 3,2014

PHH- Trainingcascading

In 9 PCs under 3FCUs (Tsehay,Ghion and Wodera)

1,990 1,005 985 Chickpea FVC Sp.Abirjiha, Sufankar, Fentay, Nara,Mekonta, Wojele, Yediwuha, Denb& worego PCs

Chickpea VC: Partners and Intervention, October – December 2014

Partner Location region Zone Woreda Intervention

Lume Adama FCU Mojo town Oromia East Shoa LumeSeed multiplication, grain production &training

Erer FCU D/Zeit Oromia East Shoa AdamaSeed multiplication, grain production &training

Liben FCU Wolliso OromiaSouth WestShoa

WollisoSeed multiplication, grain production &training

Biftu seed producing coop. Oromia East Shoa LumeSeed multiplication, grain production &training

Tsehay FCU North Gondar Amhara North Gondar DembiaSeed multiplication, grain production &training

Wodera FCU North Shewa Amhara North Shoa BasoSeed multiplication, grain production &training

Ghion FCU East Gojjam Amhara East Gojjam DejenSeed multiplication, grain production &training

Mereb FCU Bahirdar Amhara West Gojjam BahirdarSeed multiplication, grain production &training

Edget woman Agribusiness coop

Mojo town Oromia East Shoa Lume Small scale food processing

Leye Woman Agribusiness coop

Tulu BoloTown/Oromia

OromiaSouth WestShoa

Tulublo Small scale food processing

Bale Green Plc Bale Oromia Bale Gassera Seed multiplication and grain production


Partner Location region Zone Woreda Intervention

Agro Prom InternationalPlc

AA AA AAValue Addition (chickpea & sesameprocessing

ATA AA AA Seed multiplication (double cropping)

EPOSPEA AA AA Trade show and conference

SNV Ethiopia AA AAOrganized field day to introduce ACOSvariety chickpea

MoT AA AA Export Info Sharing

MoA at woreda, zone andregion levels

AA and regionsOromia andAmhara,SNNP

Follow up on seed multiplication

EIAR D/Zeit OromiaResearch on seed multiplication chickpeavarieties

Chickpea VC: Activity Tracker (Gant Chart), October – December 2014

Activity DescriptionIndicatorand Unit

Y 4Target

Q 2 Cumulative (Q1+Q2)

Reason for varianceTarget Achieved Target Achieved

Number % Number %


Supporting FCUs to engage in seedmultiplication Business (supportingin getting the license,)

# of FCUs 3 2 1 50 2 1 50 These are FCUs in Oromiawho failed to meet thetarget on time (started theprocess lately)

Facilitate creation of market linkagewith buyers for FCUs andprocessors (Kabuli and Desi grainproduct for domestic and exportmarket)

Volume ofsales in MT

10,500 480 1,000 1,400 140 not ready for marketing(harvesting not yet done)

New technologies and management practices

Facilitate new seed distribution forselected 3 FCUs (Erer, Wodera andGhion) (30% women)

# of farmers 1,000 1,000 813 81 Done in the 1st quarter



Y 4Target



Number % Number %

Adoption of new technologiesfacilitated (in coordination with AGPand input activities for existing andnewly added FCUs

# ofhectaresunderimprovedtechnologies

4,536 4,536 2,286 50 The variance is due to adecline in less or noparticipation by Bechowolliso FCU on seedmultiplication activity(being unable to collect theseed supplied to farmersand distribute back to newfarmers).

organize Field Days to improve theadoption of the new technologiesand to share the good practicesamong stakeholders

# of fielddays

7 7 5 71 7 5 71 due to various meetingschedules in both Amharaand Oromia hampered thefield day program to takeplace on time

Assist FCUs and PCs in providinggrading equipment for Chickpea(Moisture tester, Sample drawer bagTrier, Riffle type Sample divider,Gram Scale with poly scoop andHand Sieves with bottom pan)

# PCs &FCUsadoptingnewtechnologies

24 24 24 100 24 24 100

Capacity building

Conduct SMFM managementtraining (gender focused leadership,record keeping, business planningand marketing) to cooperativeleaders and staff

# of trainees 80 80 47 59 due to budget constraint,

Provide entrepreneurship trainingfor aggregators including women andyouth groups/associations

# of women& youthgroupmembers

80 30 30 100 80 54 68 Due to budget revision.Same training will takeplace in Amhara in QII.

Conduct/Cascade SMFMagricultural/PHH, input training tofarmer trainers/lead farmers

# of leadFarmersTrained

105 105 118 112 105 118 112 Due to inclusion of 3additional experts fromBoA



Y 4Target



Number % Number %

Cascade SMFM agricultural /PHHinput/ training to farmers andoperators

# of farmerstrained

4,250 4,250 2,697 63 4,250 2,697 63 Due to a decline in less orno participation by Bechowolliso FCU on seedmultiplication activity(being unable to collect theseed supplied to farmersand distribute back to newfarmers).


Honey Value Chain

Overview

Beekeeping is one of Ethiopia’s longest-standing cultural practices in the farming communities where 1.5

million households keep bees. Worldwide, millions are engaged in beekeeping contributing billions of

dollars to the world economy through honey and wax production and pollination.

AGP- AMDe’s strategy for the honey value chain is to upgrade producers and processers to increase their

competitiveness to meet the demand for high quality table honey in domestic and international markets.

The project aims to provide post-harvest handling and management trainings for 5,800 farmers, finalize

the installation of Zenbaba’s honey processing plant and create market linkages for producers, processors

and buyers.


Market Linkages

A total of 263.85MT of honey worth USD 752,602 was supplied to local and international markets, of

which 201MT valued of USD 802,160 was exported.

Honey production, value and exports in Q2.

Domestic Market Export

RegionVolume inTon

Value in USDVolume inMT

Value inUSD

Amhara 25 63,095

200.54 802,160Oromia 146.14 347,486

SNNPR 13.85 29,679

Tigray 78.86 312,343

Total 263.85 752,602 200.54 802,160

Capacity Building

Trained 4,719 smallholder farmers and government staff on post-harvest handling (PHH), which covers

quality control, storage and pest management, and has resulted in a 14% reduction in post-harvest losses.

Job Opportunities

Partners Bez Mar and COMEL created employment for 20 temporary (three months) and eight full time

employees.



Honey Processing Plant Inauguration: Amhara Regional

Bureau of Agriculture Head, Dr. Teshome Wale, international

honey buyer Parodi Apicultura’s Santiago Herro, and former

Chamber of Commerce President, Mulu Solomon inaugurated

Amhara’s largest honey processing plant on November 19,

2014 in Bahir Dar.

The Zenbaba Bee Products Development & Marketing

Cooperative Union’s processing plant is worth USD147,619

and has a production capacity of 11 metric tons of honey per

day. The plant is expected to export much of its honey to the

US, Europe, and the Middle East.

Zenbaba FCU collaborated in a joint venture with

a leading global buyer/producer, Parodi Apicultura.

The resulting factory is now poised to produce 150

MT of honey and approximately 7.5 MT of wax in

its first export order. Zenbaba’s annual estimated

seasonal honey production capacity is about 539

MT and 26.9 MT of wax. Zenbaba is made up of 11

primary honey producing cooperatives.

Through USAID AGP-AMDe’s efforts, Zenbaba

FCU was provided with support in brokering

business arrangements with the Parodi Group,

resulting in the Parodi Foundation’s matching

funding for the equipment. AGP-AMDe provided

technical assistance in the re-design and

construction, management, and implementation of

the library-turned-factory premises.

Market Linkages

A total of 263.85MT of honey worth USD 752,602 were supplied to local and international markets, of

which 201MT valued of USd 802,160 were exported to Norway, UK, Germany and Japan.

ApiExpo Africa 2014

Eight participants represented Ethiopia from government organizations, Ethiopian Apiculture Board (EAB),

Ethiopian Beekeepers Association (EBA), private traders, farmer unions and AGP-AMDe at the 4th All-

Africa International Honey Exposition ApiExpo Africa, which was held October 6 to 11 at the Harare

International Conference Centre under the theme Beekeeping for Economic Empowerment in Africa.

The inauguration of the Zenbaba honey processingplant.

Heated honey is poured into a wax separator at the

inauguration.


AGP-AMDe facilitated and organized Ethiopia’s participation and partnered with SNV, ASPIRE and the

EAB, to mobilize participants such as producers, exporters and policy makers.

The main objectives of the expo included showcasing api-business inputs and services, providing a platform

for sharing information and developments in the honey value chain, networking, strengthening the host

country’s beekeeping industry apex body, and boosting tourism to Ethiopia.

The trade fair was comprised of several concurrent events which included conferences, exhibitions, B2B

meetings and educational/technical tours at and around the Harare area. The event brought together many

delegates and exhibitors from Africa, Europe, Asia and other parts of the world.

Beekeeping equipment marketing: Using the AGP-AMDe grant, COMEL Pvt. Co. purchased honey

and bee wax processing equipment to increase its production capacity and supply from surrounding

farmers. In the period, 29,000 pieces of foundation sheet were prepared and distributed to beekeepers

in Tigray through different organizations. The remaining unpurchased beekeeping materials like protective

gear have been procured and distributed among 105 women with the help of the AGP-AMDe grant.

Types and price of beekeeping equipment sold by COMEL.

Capacity Building

AGP-AMDe and partners have provided three types of capacity building activities to beekeepers and

government staff in the regions: Technical Training,

Management Training, ToT on PHH and cascading training.

Technical Training: Holeta Research Center (HRC) and

Tigray women’s group Debrenazeret provided intensive

and broad beekeeping skills and post-harvest handling

technical training to 228 smallholder farmers (52 female).

The HRC in Oromia region, with the support of AGP-

AMDe grant, trained 103 members (33 females) of the

Boredo Primary Honey Cooperative in Ginchi on

processing of crude beeswax, queen rearing, extraction of

crude honey, ‘Chefeka’ and intermediate hive

construction, colony management, and foundation sheet

making .

Items PiecesGloves 60Queen excluder 171Overcoat with veil 68Bee brush 53Smoker 30Queen cage 300foundation sheet(comb)

29,000

Trainees wearing protective clothing practice colonymanagement.


Management Training: AGP-AMDe and Zenbaba Honey Marketing FCU provided a six day

management and leadership training for 25 (2 female) participants in December 2014 at Dangla town. The

training focused on financial record keeping, marketing and business management. Participants were from

Zenbaba FCU and primary cooperatives (Mesert Hiot, Marukemes, Addis Alem, Andinet, Marishet, Biruh

Tesfa, Tseday).

PHH ToT Training: A PHH ToT training on quality control and the semi-processing of honey and

beeswax was delivered to 155 potential beekeepers (36 females) in all four project regions. The trainees

included beekeepers, woreda experts and district agents. The purpose of the training was to acquaint the

model beekeepers with improved beekeeping and quality honey production technologies and eventually

transfer to a number of honey producers and purchasers as fast as possible. The training has been focused

on what honey properties look like and proper handling of honey (storage and transporting to the market).

Cascading Training: Using SMFM training procedures,

Honey PHH training was cascaded in all regions except in

SNNP. The number of beneficiaries of this intervention is

4311, of which 1136 (43%) are female farmers. They were

selected from primary cooperatives engaged in beekeeping

businesses. Topics of the training were on beekeeping

management and post-harvest handling of honey and honey

products. Tigray region trained 820 farmers through

Debrenazereth Women groups; Oromia region cascaded the

same training for 1,025 people; and Amhara for 2466 people.

SNNP will train in the coming months. To support the training

process, brochures and posters were prepared in different

local languages and have been distributed to all training sites.

Experience Sharing: The Tigray and Oromia AGP-AMDe offices arranged inter-regional technical

tours for 12 male and 38 female beekeepers. Tigray region supported 26 (17 female) farmers from women

cooperatives engaged in honey production and government staff from two AGP woredas of the region.

They visited Haleka Alem Abraha apiary site in Wukro, the Woini

Women Beekeepers Association around Abraha Atsebeha area,

the Alpha Primary cooperative, Ato Chanye’s beekeeping and

COMEL honey processing plant at Mekele on December 4-7.

The Oromia AGP-AMDe program took place around Jima in the

Goma woreda. A total of 22 women beekeepers, two government

district agents and livestock experts from Bedelle woreda were

selected and travelled to the Metu honey cooperative site to learn

best practices of beekeeping and modern beehives. The visit was

used as a venue to transfer beekeeping and modern beehives

knowledge, skill and overall management. These two women

honey cooperatives in Oromia Region were recruited to distribute

A PHH cascading training in Oromia region.

Haleka Alem Abreha sharing his beemanagement skills.


modern beehives through AGP-AMDe’s support once the grant is secured.

From the visits, the program learned the following lessons:

- The Abraha Atsebeha women’s apiary site is well integrated with forestry and natural resource

conservation. A degraded land rehabilitation program has been undertaken before using the area

for beekeeping business and now also they are trying to enrich the area with fruit trees and bees.

- Colony split method when strong bee colonies are available.

- How to mix a weak colony with strong colony.

- Retaining strong bee colonies during dry period either by providing them proper feeding

management technique or taking all the bee-colonies to areas where crop-irrigation is practiced

during the dry season will enable to beekeepers to harvest twice during the nectar flow season.

- Method of pest and diseases control using indigenous knowledge.

Job Opportunities: Since the AGP-AMDe has started supporting Beza Mar Agro Industry PLC, the

company has grown from 32 to 52, adding 20 temporary employees working for the three months of the

quarter. In addition, COMEL also created job opportunities for three permanent employees (2 male & 1

female).

Number of employees hired by Beza Mar Agro Industry and COMEL.

Technical Follow-up: The program followed up on the Holeta Bee Research Center and Tsedey Mar

grantees’ business areas. The HRC has received a 610,000 birr grant. Queen breeding and modern

beehives were constructed and distributed to three cooperatives comprising of 90 beekeepers out of

whom 20 are women members. By-laws have been revised for the three cooperatives to their benefit.

Company Sex Permanent Temporary TotalBeza Mar

Male 10 10 20Female 22 10 32

Sub-Total 32 20 52COMEL

Male 2 - 1Female 1 - 2

Sub-Total 3 - 3Total 32 20 55


The program also followed up on the Tseday Mar Company

located in North Shoa Zone, Girar Jarso Woreda specifically

around Debre Libanos. The site selected for beekeeping

demonstration is ideal and near a permanent stream. The

owner has secured two hectares of land, which is partially

fenced. A total of 15 modern beehives are placed with their

colonies under the constructed shade, and some permanent

and seasonal plants are planted.

Analysis of the Honey Value Chain

Challenges

- Some of honey and wax exporters fail to comply with quality requirements and export contract

due dates.

- Absence of strong, well-organized unions in the honey value chain coupled with less coordination

among industry associations and other stakeholders hamper the speed of the sector development.

Some unions are not financially capable to employ manager and other staff or renew their

international certificates.

- Absence of a qualified international lab in the country creates delays in checking the quality of

honey and wax for export. Quality certification is now conducted outside the country, which

demands high cost and takes time.

- Absence of a traceability system and lack of accountability leaves an opening for adulteration.

- Some beekeepers face bee absconding problems while transferring colonies from traditional to

modern beehives, because modern beehives are distributed without giving necessary training to

users and DAs.

- Currently, there is a honey supply shortage that affects the local price.

- Grantees are reluctant to work closely with the project and lack transparency in providing

information hindering progress.

- Absence of locally based food bulk-container producers is a challenge for exporters.

Opportunities

- Since natural resource conservation has become a priority for local communities, young people

have become more involved in beekeeping.

- The Improvement of domestic honey consumption and the increase of world demand attracts

many local and international investors to Ethiopia.

- The training already provided will result in the improvement of the supply of quality beekeeping

products.

Queen breeder hives constructed and distributedto farmers by HRC.


Honey VC: Key Events Undertaken, October – December 2014

Event Date Location Male Female Total Staff Responsible Partners

Api-Africa 2014 Oct. 6 - 12 Addis Ababa 3 0 3 Ato Assefa EAB, EBA & MoI

SMFM-PHH TOT forLead Beekeepers

Oct. 28-29 and 30-31

Dangla(Amhara)

54 4 58 Chickpea & Honey FVCSpHoney VC Spec. (HO)

Tseday, Marishet, Ediget Chora,Mesert Hiot, Addis Alem, BiruhTesfa & marukemes PCsZenbaba FCU, Gozamin,Machakel, Jabi, Miecha,Libokemekem, Gondar Zuria &Dembia woreda ag. Offices

Zenbaba FCUprocessing plantInauguration Ceremony

Nov. 19 Bahir Dar 51 29 80 COP, Honey VCSpecialist from HORegional Manager VCspecialist

Tseday, Marishet, Ediget Chora,Mesert Hiot, Addis Alem, BiruhTesfa & marukemes PCsZenbaba FCURegional & WoredaGovernment OfficialsNGOs from SNV, EAB, Oxfam

SMFM managementtraining

Dec. 12-17 Dangla 23 2 25 Chickpea & Honey VCSpecialists

Tseday, Marishet, Ediget Chora,Mesert Hiot, Addis Alem, BiruhTesfa & marukemes PCsZenbaba FCU

PHH- Training cascading Dec. 20-21 and 30-31

On 7 PCs ofthe ZenbabaFCU

1,350 1,116 2,466 Chickpea & honey VCSpecialists

Tseday, Marishet, Ediget Chora,Mesert Hiot, Addis Alem, BiruhTesfa & marukemes PCsZenbaba FCU· Gozamin, machakel, Jabi,Miecha, Libokemekem, GondarZuria & Dembia Woredas Agri.offices

TOT Training Oct 20-21 Jima 32 6 38 Honey Value Chain FieldOfficer

Honey Women groups, Modelbeekeepers and DAs


Event Date Location Male Female Total Staff Responsible Partners

Technical Training Nov.22-24 Ginchi, Holeta/Genet

70 33 103 HRC HRC

Exposure visit to learnbest practice ofbeekeeping

Dec. 12 Meto, GommaWoreda,Oromia

2 22 24 Honey Value Chain FieldOfficer

Honey Cooperative andWoreda Agriculture office andworeda livestock agency

PHH Cascading Dec. 18-19 Oromia 569 456 1,025 Honey Value Chain FieldOfficer

Beekeepers from womengroups, individual bee keepers.

TOT Training Dec. 14-16 Bonga 33 5 38 Honey Value Chain andField Officer

Model beekeepers, DAs

PHH Cascading training At differentsites of OflanadEndahominiworedas

528 292 820 Farmers who receivedPHH ToT training

Debrenazereth Womenbeekeeping group members,other beekeepers

Technical Trainings EndamehoniWoreda

106 19 125 Honey value chainWoreda Honey expert

SH beekeepers

PHH ToT Training EndamehoniWoreda

0 21 21 Honey value chain officer Women beekeepers

Experience Sharing Visit Dec. 4 - 7, 2014 Wukro &Mekele

10 16 26

MSP meeting Dec 9, Dec 27 Holeta(Oromia)

5 5 AGP-AMDe, SNV, GRAD BoA, Regional CA, AEB, honeyproducers and exporters

MSP meeting Dec. 27 Yirgalem(SNNPR)

6 6


Honey VC: Partners and Interventions, October – December 2014

Partners Location (Woreda,

Region)

Interventions during the quarter Explain observed major results

Debre Nazerate Endamohoni, Tigray Assistance with purchasing & distribution ofbeekeeping equipment

Purchased and distributed to women beneficiaries

Hashenge Multi-purposeUnion

Ofla, Tigray Training and market linkages;Purchase of crude honey from primary coops.

Helped form market linkage with primary coops. andowned a piece of land for the construction of honeystorage and processing

GerebWoyniPrim.Cooperative

Ofla, Tigray Selling crude honey to the Hashenge union Helped form market linkage with Hasenge union

Birhan Belay (ModelBeekeeper)

Ofla,Tigray Selling produced honey to COMEL honeyprocessing plant

Helped form market linkage with honey processors

COMEL Pvt. Ltd. Mekelle Selling foundation sheet and beekeepingequipment

Honey cooperatives Bedelle Woreda, Ilu Aba BoraZone Oromia Region

SMFM training on leadership, marketing,business development and accounting forcooperative leaders

Coops. have improved record keeping, and somehave purchased modern beehives based on newbusiness plans

ToT training on beekeeping, honey andbeeswax extraction, quality improvement andmodern beehives

The ToT trainees conducted cascade training to theirrespective cooperatives and quality of honeyextraction improved to some level

Grant transfer All the 1025 cascade trainees selected were trainedthrough the grant

Holeta Research Center Wolmera Woreda, HoletaTown Oromia Region

Grant transfer Training provided for 103 targeted beekeepers andsome modern beehives were transferred to FRGs

Zenbaba FCU Bahir Dar Honey processing & marketing, capacitybuilding, processing machine

Regional and kebele levelBOA and CPA

Bahir Dar, E & W Gojjam, N&S/Gondar and Awi Zones

Training & technical follow up


Honey VC: Activity Tracker (Gantt chart), October – December 2014

Activity Description

ActivityIndicator and

Unit ofMeasure

AnnualTarget

This Quarter Cumulative Q 1 + Q 2

Target ActualTarget

Actual Reason for Variance

Number % Number %


Build on the success of marketlinkages and sales agreementsbetween sellers and buyers inidentified domestic and internationalmarkets, including CIGs, Coops, andFCUs.

Volume of sales,MT

800 200 263.85 132 Promotional work wasvery effective, anddomestic and internationaldemand is increasing

Facilitate multi-stakeholder meetingto share best practices and lessonslearned and ensure B2B connections

# of MSPs 1 2 Even though this activitywas not planned, theregional AGP-AMDe MSPmeetingss were conductedin collaboration with otherNGOs

Build the capacity and supportorganizations to participate ininternational trade shows (Zimbabwe,SIAL, Gulf Foods)

# of firms/coopssupported

12 6 4 67 One person each fromEAB, EBA, EHPEA andAGP-AMDe participated inApi Trade Africa inZimbabwe. There are twomore similar events

New technologies andmanagement practices

Follow-up on all grantee sites (BezzaMar, Tseday Mar, Rahi Honey,Zembaba FCU, Hashenge FCU, KaffaForest Honey FCU, Holeta ResearchCenter)

# organizationsassisted

6 5 5 100

Capacity Building

Deliver ToT SMFM training tobeekeeper trainers /leaders and newmodern beehives TOT training

# lead farmerstrained by TOT

180 160 155 97


Activity Description

ActivityIndicator and

Unit ofMeasure

AnnualTarget


Target ActualTarget

Actual Reason for Variance

Number % Number %

Cascade SMFM to beekeepers on thenew modern beehives

# farmers trainedby Cascading

5800 5800 4311 74 One region (SNPPR) willconduct in the comingquarter

Deliver SMFM management training(gender focused leadership, recordkeeping, business planing andmarketing) to cooperative leaders andstaff and new modern beehives

# PC leaderstrained

160 40 25 63 Budget constraints

Build capacity at research centers toprovide embedded services such astraining, demonstration, forageintroduction to stakeholders

# of researchcenters

1 1 1 100

Conduct exposure visit for womenhoney producers and CIG membersto see beekeeping best practices

# of visitors 100 75 50 67 The intended number offarmers did not have timeto join the visit


Wheat Value Chain

Overview

The government has given due attention to improve the production and productivity of wheat.

Currently, the agricultural extension system is providing trainings to a large number of farmers in

improved agricultural practices. In addition to that, the availability of improved cultivars and expansion

of highly productive seed varieties is a good opportunity to improve the production and productivity of

wheat.

The goal of AGP-AMDe for the wheat value chain remain focused on replacing the large quantity of

imports that are required annually to meet the increasing demand for wheat products in the country.

The strategy primarily aims at stimulating farmer cooperatives, agribusinesses, and processors within

the value chain to be able to work collaboratively and effectively respond to market signals and

become more productive and competitive in order to capture the profit opportunities that can be

exploited in the possible shift of the prevailing import to domestic sourcing.

The main targets are:

- Facilitate 12,000 MT of wheat aggregations from the smallholder farmers

- Benefit over 400,000 smallholder direct beneficiaries. Gross margin for this farmers will

increase by more than 50% and the postharvest losses will reduce by certain percent.


Capacity building: - Trained 1,463 (573 female) lead farmers and other SHFs, cooperative leaders,

DAs other participants on SMFM Leadership and Management Trainings, PHH ToTs and cascading

trainings. In addition 1,446 (450 female) smallholder farmers (SHFs), extension workers and concerned

officials have participated on seed multiplication cum popularization farmers’ field days organized in

Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray regions. Workshops and meetings were also organized and

attended by 77 participants.

Job Employment opportunity:- A job opportunity was created for 3 individuals one agronomist

in Wodera FCU and two thresher machine operators in Bokra FCU.

Wheat Sales: In Oromia region Raya Wakana & Gedeb Asasa FCUs and member individual farmers

sold 1001.8 MT of wheat grain to EGTE. The total money value of the purchased wheat is USD

450,810. Wheat seed cooperatives (Fereweyni Gogolo and Aba-Gerima in Tigray region) aggregated

17 MT of wheat seed valued at USD 7667. Three FCUs in Amhara region (Gozamin, Damot and

Wedera) totally aggregated 626 MT of wheat from PCs and SHFs. The total value of the aggregated

wheat seed is USD 270,382.



Wheat Domestic marketing Alliance establishment: A one day meeting was organized to

discuss and create a conducive plat form for effective alignment for key wheat market stakeholders in

domestic wheat aggregation and marketing. The key institutions represented in the meeting were

Ministry of Trade, EGTE, FCA, and Cooperative Bank of Oromia, CBE, Ethiopian Millers Association,

AMDe and ATA. The group had discussed on issues of establishing “Wheat Marketing Alliance” to

serve as a platform for conducive policy environment through identifying strategic issues in the

domestic wheat market escalation in resolving appropriate institutions, on a forum for resolving inter-

institution operational issues affecting wheat marketing through cooperation amongst key

stakeholders, market linkages to ensure guaranteed market to increase local wheat market supply and

provision of technical support for access to finance for output wheat marketing and capacity building

through providing supports for FCUs and other related bodies for more efficient wheat marketing.

On the meeting the team pointed out that the key activities to be played by each organization. It was

emphasized that AGP– AMDe should play roles more in business to business forum facilitation and

capacity building in PHH to key players in the market and build capacity of FCUs to meet the millers’

requirements in terms of quality.

With efforts done last year on wheat market linkage facilitation by AGP-AMDe between Raya Wakena

and EGTE, the FCU obtained more than 9 million net profit including other activities done in the year

by the union itself (from the audit report presented by auditors on general meeting held on November

23 - 24, 2014). Based on the market linkage experiences and trusts developed in last year between the

two institutions, they have signed wheat out market agreement for the sale of 300 MT by birr 900 per

quintal that will be effective for one month time in the reporting period without much problem.

Business to business Meetings (B2B):- A meeting was conducted on Dec. 14, 2014 in Alamata town

(Tigray region) in which 38 participants (3 female) from different sectors, ESE, EGTE private investors,

processors, FCUs and seed coops, SACCOs and other government office representatives. The main

issues raised and discussed were opportunities, challenges and solutions of seed and grain marketing.

Threshing service provision:- The four FCUs that received threshers (Wodera, Erer, Melik and

Bokara) have started providing service to wheat farmers. Accordingly, it is reported that Bokura FCU

provided portable thresher machine services for 48 (14 female) SHFs and further data will be collected

to record the benefits of all thresher services.

Threshing services undergoing by Bokura FCU in Tigray region


Wheat seed harvesting and collection: In Amhara region the seed producer cooperatives and

one private farm have collected 96.1 MT of wheat seed so far and stored it in the unions’ storages for

further cleaning and packing.

Farmers Field day: Wheat seed multiplication cum popularization farmers’ field days were organized

in four regions to popularize technologies. A total of 1446 (450 female) smallholder farmers, extension

workers and concerned officials have actively participated in the field days.

In Amhara region the Farmers’ Field Day was organized in Marweled PC in Womberma woreda under

Damot FCU and 243 (52 female) participants attended the field day. The partners were smallholder

farmers, officials and experts from regional bureau of Agriculture, zone and Woreda administration

offices, Cooperative Agency, Crop quarantine laboratory, DAs, private farm owners etc.

Wheat Seed multiplication and popularization field day in Womberma Woreda (Amhara Region).

In SNNPR, the Farmer’s field day was conducted on November 11, 2014 at Alicho Weriro Woreda,

Shilmat kebele. The seed was multiplied in partnership with Edget Seed Producer and Marketing

Farmer Cooperative Union. In the field day, a total of 570 (320 female) participants from regional AGP

Coordination unit, Silte zone Agriculture office, Marketing and Cooperative Department of the zone,

Mirabe Azernet woreda Agriculture office, Worabe Agricultural Research center of South Agricultural

Research Institute attended the event. As the farmers seed production is a new intervention in the

woreda, many of the participants expressed their great appreciation for the successful work achieved

in the field and the best practices they learned from the field day.


Wheat Seed multiplication cum popularization Farmers’ Field day in Alico Werera woreda (SNNPR)

In Oromia region, the Farmers’ field day took place on Dec.13, 2014 which was organized by AGP-

AMDe project in collaboration with Agarfa Kajewa FCU in Ali/Agarfa woreda. In the launched farmers’

field day, 120 smallholder farmers (10 female) including lead farmers have participated. In addition to

this, there were representatives from the zonal and woreda agricultural and cooperative offices. 7.5

MT basic wheat seed was supported for this union under the wheat value chain program for seed

multiplication.

farmers’ field day in Agarfa/Ali Woreda ( Oromia region)

The technical supports to the unions include leveraging them to get into seed multiplication business

and be effective seed service providers to the member and other farmers. The participant have

exchanged various ideas and learned good practices on the field day from those farmers who practiced

improved agronomic practices and produced improved wheat seed. In Tigray region the farmers’ field

day was conducted on 1st Nov. 2014. A total of 513 participants (68 female) from the region, zone,

and district and village level attended the field day including invited participants by the project.

Capacity building: SMFM Leadership Management Training was provided for a total 46 trainees. In

Amhara region 20 (4 female) individuals, who are board members and employees of Gozamin FCU

were trained and in Southern region 26 (8 female) are trained. The main objectives of the trainings

were to build the capacity of SHFs, primary cooperatives and unions to deliver efficient services for

their clients in terms of leadership, marketing, financial and business management skills.


SMFM PHH trainings (ToT) were provided for a total of 127 participants in four regions. In SNNPR

for 34 (1 female) members of Melik and Edget FCU, primary cooperatives got trained on crop drying,

threshing, storing and quality maintenance of seed & grain. The training was organized at Worabe

town in Silte zone from 27- 29 Oct. 2014 by USAID AGP AMDe.

In Tigray region the PHH training was given for 30 (14 female) lead farmers of Bokura and Hashange

FCUs members and 6 DAs. The training was conducted at Alamta town, whereas in Oromia region

the PHH ToT was given for 18 (1 female) individuals who are member of Sekomendo FCU members

in Bale Robe town. In Amhara region the trainings were conducted in Debremarkos and Debreberhan

towns and a total of 45 (5 female) got the ToTs. The key trainees were lead farmers, union employees

and woreda experts.

Grading equipment handover ceremony: Grading equipment handover undertaken in Oromia

at the end of last quarter and continued in Amhara, SNNPR and Tigray regions this quarter. In

Amhara, the equipment was provided to Admas, Damot, Gozamen, Merkeb and Wodera FCUs in

October 2014 and in Tigray region for Bokura and Ashange FCUs.

The handover ceremony in SNNPR was undertaken at the AGP-AMDe field office on Nov. 27, 2014

for seven PCs, at the presence of his Excellency Ato Nuredin Mohamed, Head of the Regional

Marketing and cooperative Bureau and other 30 (4 female) guests.

Grading equipment handing over ceremony in SNNPR

On the event AGP-AMDe regional manager and wheat VC field specialist briefed the project’s

intervention points with especial emphasis on PHH training, warehouse management, and technology

supports to the FCUs, PCs and member farmers which was combined with practical demonstration

of the equipment usage. Ato Nuredin appreciated USAID AGP- AMDe for such valuable supports.

Community receipt system (CRS) supervision and launching: In Amhara region, a CRS team

is formed from AMDE, Amhara region concerned zonal/woreda offices and Gozamin FCU. This CRS

team has assessed the facilities like logistics, warehouse, and other preconditions that each PCs and

FCUs should fulfill to implement the system before starting wheat aggregation from various PCs using

CRS procedures. The CRS intervention is covering four PCs that has implemented the system last

year and the intervention will be introduced to other 9 selected new PCs to scale up the community

receipt system to aggregate wheat from the 2014/15 season harvest. These PCs are selected by the

zone and woreda CPA offices together with Gozamen and Damot FCUs. AGP-AMDe has organized


a one day launching and discussion forum for two FCUs in Debre-Elias and Shindi town. In the

launching program 29 individuals from the FCUs and PCs board chairpersons, managers, CRS focal

persons, representatives of woreda cooperative offices have attended the meeting.

Analysis of the Wheat Value Chain

Opportunities: The domestic market price in the current season is relatively higher than the past

years which is likely to encourage farmers to produce more wheat grain and supply to markets in

higher volume in the coming years.

Challenges: Despite the efforts exerted by various stakeholders, the wheat supply couldn’t meet

demand. The supply deficit is estimated to be about 25-30 % every year, which is filled with imported

grain from other countries. Many times the market linkages provided between the producer unions

and processors and unions failed due to high price fluctuation in the markets.


Wheat VC: Key Events undertaken, October – December 2014

Date Name of Event

Location (city,

Woreda,

region/country)

Value

Chain/Cross

Cutting

Area

Total Male FemaleName of Partner

Organizations

Nov. 1. 2014 Farmers’ field day Alamata Wheat 513 445 68

Dec. 03 - 04,

2014

SMFM PHH ToT Training Debre Markos Wheat 24 20 4

Dec. 26 - 27,

2014

SMFM PHH Trainings Debreberhan Wheat 21 20 1 Gozamin, Wedera, Damot FCUs,

Dec. 20, 2014 CRS Launching & Orientation Debre Elias Wheat 13 12 1

Dec. 21, 2014 CRS Launching & Orientation Womberma Wheat 16 15 1

Dec. 26 - 27,

2014

SMFM PHH Cascading Training Debre Elias Wheat 352 183 169

Dec. 18 - 23,

2014

SMFM management training Debre Markos Wheat 20 16 4

Nov. 14, 2014 Farmers’ field day Womberma Wheat 243 191 52 SHFs, DAs, Zone & Woreda

Admins, Amhara RBoA, RCA,

Crop Quarantine labs, Private

farm owners

Dec. 16 - 19,

2014

SMFM PHH Training Bale Robe Wheat 18 17 1 Sekomendo FCU

Nov. 14, 2014 Farmers’ field day Agarfa/Ali Wheat 120 110 10


Date Name of Event

Location (city,

Woreda,

region/country)

Value

Chain/Cross

Cutting

Area

Total Male FemaleName of Partner

Organizations

Dec. 2. 2014 Market Linkage Contract

Agreements Signing

Addis Abeba Wheat 7 7 Kesem Minjar, , Lume Adama,

Werdera FCUs

Oct. 27 - 29,

2014

SMFM PHH Worabe Wheat 34 33 1 Melik & Edget FCUs primary

cooperative

Nov. 11, 2014 Wheat seed production

farmers field day

Alicho Weriro Wheat 570 250 320 BoA, Silte Zone Alichowuriro

and Mirabe Azernet berbere

Woreda Agri Offices, Silte zone

Marketing and Cooperative

Department, SARI Worabe

center

Dec. 15 – 17,

2014

Marketing Training for CIG

members

Worabe Wheat 26 18 8 CIG members from, 2 CIGs in

Silte Zone.

Dec. 27, 2014 Market discussion and

negotiation forum

Worabe Wheat 30 29 1 10 primary cooperatives and

Melik FCU ,zeyetun and zeman

food processor

Nov. 8, 2014 SMFM ToT on PHH Alamata Wheat 30 16 14 Bokra &Hashenge FCU

Dec. 14, 2014 Business to Business Meeting Alamata Wheat 38 36 2 GO, ESE, EGTE, , PCs, FI

Processor FCU

Nov. 5-7, 2014 SMFM cascading on PHH Endemohoni and

Ofla

Wheat 900 531 369 Bokra & Hashenge FCU

Dec. 23, 2014 Wheat Marketing Alliance

Establishment

Addis Abeba Wheat 11 9 2 ATA, AMDe, MoT, EMA, FCA,

EGTE, CBE, CBO,


Wheat VC: Key Partners and Interventions, October – December 2014

PartnersLocation (Woreda,

Region)

Interventions during the

quarterExplain observed major results

RBoA, zonal and Wered MoA

Offices In East Gojam, RCA in E.

Gojam, Farmer Cooperatives, SHFs,

Agri. Research Centers

Damot and Debre Elias Wheat seed multiplication

cum Popularization farmers’

Field day event

Melik & Edget FCUs PCe SMFM PHH

ATA Addis Abeba Key partner in market linkages

BoA, Silte Zone Alichowuriro and

Mirabe Azernet berbere Woreda

Agri Offices, Silte zone Marketing

and Cooperative Department, SARI

Worabe center

Wheat seed multiplication

cum Popularization farmers’

Field day event

Yetgagezi and Selam CIGs (Silte

Zone)

Misrak Azernet

berbere and Alicho

weriro Woreda

Marketing training for CIG

members

-

Melik FCU, zeyetun and zeman

wheat flower mill factory

Wheat marketing Discussion

and Market negotiation forum

10 primary cooperatives and Melik FCU

signed the Agreement to market 7900

quintal of wheat in the year 2015

Edget FCU Technical support on Wheat

seed Multiplication

FCUs In 4 regions Grading equipment

Bokra FCU Enda-Mehoni/Tigray Grant for PHH cascading The trainee practice new technology

Hashenge FCU Ofla/Tigray Grant for PHH cascading The trainee practice new technology

Ethiopia Seed Enterprise Mekelle/Tigray Forum (enabling environment)

through B2B meeting

Discuss with seed producers & partners

about the challenges that hinder seed

marketing face to face and sign

agreement with 4 seed cooperatives


Fereweyni Gogolo seed cooperative Ofla Forum (enabling environment) Discuss with ESE face to face about the

challenges face last year and sign

agreement

Aba-Gerima seed Cooperative Ofla Forum (enabling environment) Discuss with ESE face to face about the


agreement

Feryat haya seed cooperative Enda-Mehoni Forum (enabling environment) Discuss with ESE face to face about the


agreement

Kokob seed cooperative Enda-Mehoni Forum (enabling environment) Discuss with ESE face to face about the


agreement


Wheat VC: Activity Tracker (Gantt chart), October – December 2014


UnitY 4

Target



AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %


Organize 4 discussion and marketnegotiation forums 1 in each regionbetween Producer FCUs and Buyers/Processors for the sale of 12,000 MT(Amh= 4000; Oro= 6000; SNNP=1000and Tig= 1000)

12,000 MT Sales/PurchaseFacilitated

12,000 2,000 1,645 82 3,200 4,094 128 This period isharvesting time,marketing will be inthe coming quarters

Support CIGs to aggregate and marketthrough training (leadership, marketing,BDS etc.,)

# CIGssupported

7 4 4 100 4 4 100

New technologies and management practices - -

Organize experience sharing tour forFCUs and Private operators across theregions to learn best practices in theWVC

# of participantsattended 21

- - This was requested toconduct in Dec.however therequested budget notapporived on time

Provide Technical Support to seedproducer coops and private operators tointroduce new varieties and promotedirect retail of seed

# of seedproducer coopsand private seedgrowerssupported

116 6 100 10 10 100

Conduct Farmers Field day on wheatseed Multiplication cum popularizationintervention

# farmers fieldday conducted

4 4 4 100 4 4 100

Follow-up and Technical support on seedmultiplication, SMFM leadership,management TOTs and cascadingtrainings,

# FCUs/seedproducer coops/CRS users/ etc.receivedTA/supports

20 17 17 100 17 17 100



UnitY 4

Target



AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

Technical support and follow up of theutilization of the technical efficiency andperformance of the grant supportedthreshers

# FCUs/receivedTA/supports

4 4 3 75 4 3 75 because harvesting isstill going on in someareas and the followup is a continousprocess

Capacity building - -

Facilitate Multi-stakeholder meeting(MSPs) once a year in each region toupdate stakeholders on wheat industryissues (5 X 40 participants )

# MSP meetingsfacilitated

4 - - This will be facilitatedin the coming quarters

Support regional Marketing Agencies inimproving their existing MIS throughproviding material and MIS training(in data collection, transmission,dissemination and analysis )

# MIS improved 4 - -

Grant Support to Edget Seed producerFCU

2,500 MT SeedStorage Built onCost Share Basis

1 1 - - 1 - - becase of change onthe required size ofwarehouse by theregion, negotiation notyet finalized

Conduct ToTs in SMFM business trainingmodule delivered (negotiation, pricing,promotion, creating linkages, relationshipmanagement, etc.) to be cascaded toFCU and business operators

# trainerstrained

90 50 46 92 44 46 ToT training willcontinue in the comingquarters

Conduct/Cascade SMFMagricultural/PHH, input training to farmertrainers/lead farmers (only wherenecessary) (30 each)

# farmerstrained byCascading

4,400 2,800 1,252 45 1,600 1,252 The cascading traningwill continue. 2regions (SNNPR andOromia) not yetcascaded so far



UnitY 4

Target



AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

Conduct/SMFM agricultural PHH, inputtraining to farmer trainers /lead farmers(only when necessary)

# PC leaderstrained

120 120 127 106 127 The cascading traningwill continue. 2regions (SNNPR andOromia) not yet notcascaded so far

Facilitate the proper handover anddistribution of grading equipmentprocured for partner FCUs in kind grant

# FCUs & PCs 40 40 41 103 41 More PCs areaddresed/supported innuber The targetincludes PHH ToTs


Maize Value Chain

Overview

The seed technology transfer strategy increased demand for hybrid maize seed utilization and cultivation

practice using high yielding hybrid maize varieties. This has increased yield and created better production

supply beyond the local market absorption capacity. AGP AMDe’s interventions however are not only

limited to production and productivity but also marketing, processing and value adding activities in general.

Low production was the main reason for high price of maize. This challenge is tackled by increased

production supply and the market price of grain maize is getting lower than the past years. But the local

market price is still higher than the regional market price in East Africa. Commercialization of better

quality maize has created the need to export markets and the request of lifting export ban became an

issue on policy decision makers. However, the high price of white maize in local market is challenging the

competitiveness of the product in regional markets. Increasing the productivity and lowering the local

market price should still be a strategy for maize value chain. Maize is working under non structured market

and the marketing prices are unnecessarily growing now and then. Usually, the windfall advantages

outweigh the role of market functions. The LoP strategies are:

- Facilitate VC support interventions to SHF & farmers institutions.

- Facilitate use of farm input technologies & adoption of improved post-harvest technologies to SHF

& commercial farms.

- Enhance PS involvement in farm input supply services and technology rental services.

- Network producers to end market actors and minimize the long market chain, which is against

the benefit of the key actors.

- Facilitate marketability of VC products, support & promote value addition and agro processing through

USG support projects

The main LoP targets are:

- 75% yield increase

- 100% increase of gross margin/ha for SHFs

- 10–20% transaction cost reduction

Summary of Top results

The second year hybrid maize seed technology reaching through AMSAP in 16 AGP woredas and BH-661

in seven woredas of SNNPR are on harvest and threshing. SNNPR BH-661 partially completed and 34

lead farmers yield results are evaluated and over 80% yield increase achieved. As maize production is

increasing; World Food Program (WFP) through Purchase for Progress (P4P) program influenced to

purchase white maize, encouraged small holder farmers to produce more and more. The limited purchase

of WFP and export ban of maize caused some FCUs to remain with excess production. For the coming

season, WFP has signed an MOU with 14 FCUs and they have signed an MOU to supply 16,800 MT. The

production volume increase of maize is becoming challenging to be absorbed by the local market. The

local market cannot absorb the national maize supply and it seems a high time to demonstrate regional

export market. Now, the challenge shift is from low production to high marketing cost compared to

regional market prices. The price of maize in the local market is higher than the prices of regional markets,

which is another challenge over maize export ban.


To improve supply volume and quality of maize, postharvest/grading equipments are supplied to selected

FCUs. Demonstrating the equipment and training of post-harvest handling techniques are given to TOT

and cascaded dawn to the farmers. This has contributed to improved quality of maize and lowered post-

harvest loss of the crop at farmers’ level.

Second year AMSAP Maize variety demonstrations: The second year AMSAP new seed

demonstrations on 3,200 lead farmers’ plots using Pioneer hybrid maize varieties has successfully

completed the new seed technology popularization to all the 16 AGP woredas in 112 farmers associations.

The small holder farmers are eagerly waiting for the completion of threshing operation to evaluate the

final yield results.

Second year AMSAP demonstration with pioneer hybrid varieties

No. Region Zone Woreda No. of

PAs

# Farmers Focal

person

No. of

DAs

1 Amara W/Gojam Jabi tenan 7 200 1 21

Bure Zurea 7 200 1 21

Womberema 7 200 1 21

S/Achefer 7 200 1 21

Awi Guangua 7 200 1 21

N/Gonder Alefa 7 200 1 21

2 Oromia Jimma L/seka 7 200 1 21

Goma 7 200 1 21

I/ababor Dedessa 7 200 1 21

W/Welga Diga 7 200 1 21

G/gida 7 200 1 21

W/tuka 7 200 1 21

W/Shoa Bako 7 200 1 21

3 SNNPR Guragie Enemor ener 7 200 1 21

Yem Special Wer. Yem 7 200 1 21

Kefa Decha 7 200 1 21

Total 3 10 16 112 3200 16 336

BH-661 hybrid maize popularization impact on FCUs and private seed enterprises:

In Amara region; BH-661 hybrid maize popularization have created new hybrid maize seed

demand for farmers. Amongst members of four FCUs 7,583 (415 female) small holder farmers

got the chance to purchase the new hybrid maize seed and cultivated over 2,744.5 ha of land to

harvest 191MT grain maize.

Because of last season BH-661 Popularization, four private seed companies and one state seed

agency are attracted to start certified BH-661 seed multiplication business to supply smallholder


farmers. This year the companies have cultivated 502.25 ha of land for certified seed multiplication

and 1,357.75 MT certified BH-661 maize seed is expected to be harvested. The seed amount

could serve for 54,280 ha of hybrid maize grain production. This harvest is estimated to serve

for 162,810 farmers’ grain maize production for market and consumption. (For detail info see the

table below).

Private seed companies engaged BH-661 seed business

No Seed Company name Working areas

Quantity of

Basic seed

used (Qt)

Land allotted for

BH-661 seed

multiplication

(Ha)

Expected

Quantity of

certified hybrid

seed input (Qt)

# Farmers to

be benefited

from the

certified seed

input

1 Avallo RD PlcAnkesha &

BureZuria5 20 600 7,200

2 Yimam Tessema SSEWomberma

(BurAfere)13 52 1,560 18,720

3 Nile SSSWomberma

(Yergin)28.375 113.5 3,405 40,860

4Amhara Seed

EnterpriseGuangua 75 300 7,500 90,000

5 Bayihi plc Bure Zuria 4.2 16.75 502.5 6,030

Total 125.575 502.25 13,567.50 162,810

Similarly, all the joint effort on BH-661 popularization in six woredas of SNNPR resulted in 80% to 265%

average yield increase over local variety and BH-660 hybrid respectively. The table below illustrated white

maize yield performance comparison against local variety and BH-660 hybrid maize.

BH 661 yield performance against BH0660 and non-hybrid maize (ton/ha)

Woreda name

Average yield (ton/ha) BH-661 yield performance (%)

Non hybrid

BH-660

hybridBH-661 hybrid

Over non

hybrid maize

Over BH-660

hybrid

Chenna 2.2 4.60 6.90 213.64 50.00

Basketto SPW 2.2 4.50 10.30 368.18 128.89

South Bench 2.2 4.00 7.00 218.18 75.00

Gedeb 2.2 4.00 6.50 195.45 62.50

Konta SPW 2.2 5.00 9.50 331.82 90.00

Wondo Genet 2.2 4.50 8.00 263.64 77.78

Average 2.20 4.43 8.03 265.15 80.69

Marketing of White Maize: In accordance with the value chain approaches of development assistance,


AGP AMDe’s interventions are not only limited to production and productivity but also marketing,

processing and value adding activities in general. Hence, the volume and value of maize traded through

project assistance are summarized in table below:

2014 White Maize supplied from FCUs to P4P WFP

Name of CU & Region Planned Actual

MT USD MT USD %

Amhara Region

1 DAMOT FCU 2,000 600,000

2,000 600,000

100

2 MERKEB FCU 4,500 1,501,604

4,500 1,501,604

100

3 ADMAS FCU 1,500 496,524

1,500 496,524

100

Total 1 8,000 2,598,128 8,000 2,598,128 100

Oromia Region

1 GIBE DEDESA FCU 1,000 277,005

1,000 277,005

100

2 LIMU INARA FCU 1,500 415,508

1,500 415,508

100

3 LIBEN FCU 1,000 310,160

735 227,968

74

4 AMBO FCU 1,000 310,160

1,000 310,160

100

5 HARAGU FCU 1,500 406,684

1,384 375,234

92

6 BORE BAKKO FCU 1,000 271,123

868 235,335

87

Total 2 7,000 1,990,642 6,487 1,841,211 92

SNNPR

1 ADMAS FCU 4,000 1,176,471

2,800 823,529

70

2 SIDAMA ELTO FCU 4,000 1,279,144

4,000 1,279,144

100

Total 3 8,000 2,455,615 6,800 2,102,674 86

Grand total of 2014 (1+2+3) 23,000 7,044,385

21,287 6,542,013

93

Total sales of 2013

13,592 4,707,310

Incremental sales of 2014

7,695 1,834,703


Key activities and successes

Capacity building through field day visits as demonstration plat form for experience sharing:

AMSAP field day visitors shared demonstration plots experience and learned the role of improved hybrid

maize for uniform and high yield performance. In all 16 woredas from 98 peasant associations 2,718

household farmers, 334 development agents, 178 district office staffs and 22 federal and regional officials

made experience sharing visits and discussions.

Trainings:

TOT trainees: The strategy of training of trainers has contributed to reach more and more smallholder

farmers and helped to adopt the hybrid maize seed technology and benefited their livelihood as income

generating commodity. Maize beyond its multidimensional benefit as food, feed and fuel; is becoming cash

crop to the farming community. In all AMSAP woredas, 181 TOT trainees have contributed to trickle

dawn the knowledge of good agronomic practice and post-harvest handling techniques to 2,889 farmers

within three months.

SMFM trainees: Up to Dec 31, 2014 PHH training was cascaded in Amara, Oromiya and SNNP

regions. Under AMSAP 2,889 lead farmers trainees have attained the training. Among the trainees, 2,765

were male and 124 were female lead farmers.

Non AMSAP TOT and SMFM trainees on PHH training: In addition to AMSAP Amara region has

trained TOT and cascaded PHH trainings for three FCUs. From these FCUs 34 trainers and 288 member

farmers got the training.

On job training: In Amara region under the auspices of four FCUs in 52 primary coops, 102 farmers

have got on job training and quality equipment demonstration about the distributed grading equipments.


Number of participants in the second year AMSAP field days

AMSAP

Woreda

PA Farmers DA’s District offices Federal ,region &

zone

All total

M F Total M F Total M F Total M F Total

Amhara

Wembere

ma

9 577 53 630 12 1 13 23 4 27 15 0 15 685

Bure 5 62 7 69 16 2 18 12 0 12 - - 0 99

Jabi tehinan 4 69 3 72 12 2 14 5 2 7 - - 0 93

S/Achefer 5 93 3 96 10 - 10 9 1 10 - - 0 116

Alefa 6 68 4 72 8 4 12 7 1 8 - - 0 92

Guangua 3 36 8 44 18 8 26 8 2 10 - - 0 80

Total

32 905 78 983 76 17 93 64 10 74 15 - 15 1,165

Oromia

Bako tibe 8 245 51 296 10 7 17 5 0 5 - - 0 318

Wayu Tuka 10 296 40 336 21 4 25 10 1 11 - - 0 372

Guto Gida 7 83 5 88 11 5 16 3 1 4 - - 0 108

Diga 8 110 20 130 31 4 35 6 0 6 - - 0 171

Dedessa 130 21 151 14 4 18 10 1 11 - - 0 180

Goma 9 198 8 206 42 8 50 24 4 28 6 1 7 291

L/Seka 4 52 0 52 44 4 48 16 0 16 - - 0 116


AMSAP

Woreda

PA Farmers DA’s District offices Federal ,region &

zone

All total

M F Total M F Total M F Total M F Total

Total

46 1,114 145 1,259 173 36 209 74 7 81 6 1 7 1,556

SNNPR

Yem 12 152 0 152 13 0 13 12 1 13 - - 0 178

Enemor 8 195 9 204 8 1 9 4 0 4 - - 0 217

Detcha 114 6 120 8 2 10 4 4 0 134

Total 20 461 15 476 29 3 32 20 1 21 0 0 0 529

Total 98 2480 238 2,718 278 56 334 158 18 176 21 1 22 3,250


Maize VC: Key events undertaken, October – December 2014

Amhara region

Date Name of Event Location (city, woreda,

region/country)

Value

Chain

Total # of

participants

(# of women)

Name(s) of

AMDe

Team

Attending

Name of Partner

Organizations

11-

16/10/14

AMSAP Hybrid maize green field day Bure ,Womberma ,S/Achefer

Alefa , Jabitenan and Guangua

woredas

Maize 1172(105) Ato

Yohannes,

Sahle

Derbew

DU PONT Pioneer

,USAID,AGP,BOA,WAO,F

CUs, Producer farmers

28/10-

03/11/14

SMFM management training for

Damot and its 6PCs

Dangila Maize 26(4) Bishaw and

Sahle

Damot FCU and its PCs

(Yechereqa ,Wadi, Adiss

ambo, wo.workima, Denbun

, AND Wogedad

17-18,

11/14

SMFM PHH TOT Training for 3

FCUs (Merkeb ,Damot and Admas)

FCUs and their PCs

Dangila Maize 34 (2) Tibebu

Ashagire and

Melkia

Mossu

Damot, Admas and Merkeb

FCUs their PCs

12-

14/11/14

Yield Estimation and PHH TOT for

demo woredas

Dangila Maize 46(12) Ato Tibebu

,Sahle

Woreda Agri.,DU Pont

pioneer, AMDe and farmers

28/10-

03/11/14

Conducted Cascading training on

maize PHH for AMSAP Targeted

beneficiaries

Bure ,Womberma ,S/Achefer

Alefa , Jabitenan and Guangua

woredas

Maize 1175(34) Sahle

Derbew

Bure-Zuria ,Womberma

,S/Achefer, Alefa , Jabitenan

and Guangua woredas

Agriculture offices

19-

22/12/14

Quality equipment utilization on-job

trainings

Bahir dar,Injibara , Bure and

D/Markos town

Maize 102(52) Tibebu and

Sahle

Damot, Gozamen, Admas

and Merkeb FCUs their

PCs


6-15/12/14 Conducted Cascading training on

maize PHH for 3FCUs

(Merkeb,Damot & Admas )

At each working areas of the

FTC.

Maize 424(87) Sahle

Derbew

Damot, Admas and Merkeb

FCUs and their PCs

Oromia

Nov.15-17,

2014

Training of trainers on Post-Harvest

Handling

Jima town Maize 22 (0) Kassu

kebede

Limu Inaria FCU; Coop.

Promotion and Agri. offices

Different

days from

Nov. -

December

Cascading training on Post-Harvest

Handling

11 PCs in 3 Woredas (limu

Seka, Chora Boter and Nono

Benja)

Maize 974 (122) = Limu Inaria FCU, Coop.


November

2015

AMSAP field days Goma, Bako and Nekemte Maize 1,556 (189) Yonas

Degefu

Bore Bako, G/Dedesa,

B/Bedele, Arga and L/ Inera

FCUs; Coop. Promotion and

Agri. offices

Nov.4-5

2014

AMSAP TOT training Jima Maize 23 (1) Yonas

Degefu

L/ Inera, Arga and Buno

Bedele FCUs; Coop.


Nov7-8,

2014

AMSAP TOT training Nekemt Maize 32 (7) Yonas

Degefu

Coop. Promotion and Agri.

offices; Bore Bako and

G/Dedesa FCUs

Different

days from

Nov. -

December

AMSAP SMFM cascaded trainees Different places in 7 Woredas (Limu

Seka, Goma, Dedessa, Diga, Gutu Gida,

Wayu Tuka and Bako Tibe)

Maize 1246 (75) - Bore Bako, G/Dedesa, L/ Inera,

Arga and Buno Bedele FCUs;

and Coop. Promotion and Agri.

offices

SNNPR

Oct 6-

7,2014

AMSAP maize field day Yem Sp.woreda & Enemore

woreda

Maize 303 (12) Alemayehu

Tilahun

Agri Office

Nov 4-

5,2014

PHH &yield estimation ToT training Jimma Maize 24 (1) Alemayehu

Tilahun

Agri Office

Nov 19-

21,2014

SMFM PHH ToT training Wolayta Sodo Maize 29 (1) Alemayehu

Tilahun

South Omo & Oysa dawro

FCU ,Coop&marketing

Offices


Nov 28-

30,2014

AMSAP cascading training Decha,Yem & Enemore

woredas

Maize 525 (23) Alemayehu

Tilahun

Agri Offices

Dec 2-

10,2014

PHH cascading training South Omo & Oysa Dawro Maize 1080 (540) Alemayehu

Tilahun


FCU , Coop&marketing

Offices

Dec 15-

20,2014

SMFM management training Wolayta Sodo Maize 19 (0) Alemayehu

Tilahun


FCU , Coop&marketing

Offices

Dec 23-

24,2014

Market linkage workshop Addis Ababa Maize Alemayehu

Tilahun

ATA, WFP ,processors &

NGOs


Updated list of Partners

Partners

to date

(Up to

June 2-

Value

Chain

Type of

Partner

(Associati

on/FCU/P

Women

owned/le

d

organizat

Category

(Farmers/

processor

s/buyers/

Area of

partnersh

ip

(Marketin1 Bako

Research

Maize Gov Male Research seed

technology2 EIAR Maize Gov Male Research seed

technology3 DuPont

Pioneer

Maize private female Seed

multiplier

Hybrid

maize

Seed4 WFP Maize Public Male Buyer marketing

5 Agricultur

al

Maize Gov Male Srakehold

er

Network

6 Ministry of

Agricultur


er

Network

7 Ministry of

Trade


er

Network

8 Federal

Cooperati


er

Network


Input Supply

Overview

USAID AGP-AMDe‘s interventions toward the expansion of the agricultural input supply system are afundamental contribution to Ethiopia‘s goals of food security and becoming a middle income country.

Increased use of fertilizer and access to quality seed is central to meet the GoE Growth andTransformation Plan targets for crop production. The strategy, designed to implement input supply valuechain is focused on rolling out and implementing market interventions that will respond to increasedemand for quality seeds of superior varieties, multi-nutrient and briquetted fertilizer in collaboration withFCUs, public & private sectors.

Towards achieving its objectives, USAID AGP-AMDe is pursuing a strategy that focuses on technicalsupport in quality seed multiplication program, popularization of local hybrid seeds and in marketdevelopment to cooperatives and commercial seed enterprises. It supports blended fertilizer initiativealong with ATA and MoA through training and popularization and scaling up of specific nutrient deficienciesthat correspond to value chain crops in specific agro ecologies. In addition, the project assist to increaseproduct demand through knowledge enhancement and technical assistance to private seed companies,fertilizer blending FCUs, and agribusiness entrepreneurs for cascading to cooperatives and smallholderfarmers.


- 208.75ha of wheat seed multiplied was inspected and certified by Tigray regional seed quality

control laboratory from which 835 MT of seed is expected to be produced that can cover 6680

hectares for the next season benefiting 6680 farmers. From the previous season produce, 1683MT

was used for seed in the Region which covered 13460 hectares benefiting 13460 farmers.

- The project supported the introduction of two new sesame varieties to the research system for

verification of higher yield, better quality and non shattering character. Humera Research Center

has started working on the promising varieties so that the varieties will pass the National standard

Registration Process.

- 20,313 MT of grain was produced from BH-661maize hybrid seed that was distributed and planted

in Amhara region.

- 2,738.1 MT of Sesame (Humera-1 & Setit-1 varieties) produced, 547.7 MT was used as seed and

the remaining 2,190.4 MT was sold as grain in Amhara and Tigray regions. The seed will cover

109540 hectares and benefit 109540 farmers in the two Regions.

- Agricultural input TOT training on the use of the new blended fertilizer on chickpea given to 30

(5 female) in Amhara region.

- From 8,416.3 MT of Wheat (Kekeba Variety) produced, 6,733 MT was sold as grain in Tigray

region.

- Out of this 67.7 MT of AMDe’s chickpea seed grant in Amhara region 59 MT seed distributed

while the remaining quantity 8.7 MT is not distributed due to the heavy rainfall and flood that

affected timely chickpea planting.

- From yield data collected on maize fertilizer briquette demonstrations in SNNPR region, plot

treated with USG had yield increment on an average 12 quintal/ha against plot treated with urea

granular fertilizer.

- 10 blended fertilizer popularizations were conducted on chickpea in SNNPR region.


- 3,741 (856 female) smallholder farmers and partners attended farmers‘ field day organized in all

regions on Sesame, Wheat, Maize fertilizer popularization and seed multiplication popularization

of high yielding hybrid varieties.


Improved Seed Multiplication and Popularization Program

Seed Grants

- Wheat seed production data collection is on process in all regions.

- Chickpea is on vegetative stage hence not harvested.

- Sesame seed production report for Tigray region is presented below while the data collection for

Amhara region is on progress.

Sesame yield data in Tigray Region

Seed coop andCommercial farm

Crop VarietyArea(ha)

Seed produced(qt)

Walta Seed coop

Sesame

Setit-1 69 144

Hadinet Seed coopHumera-

128 58

Egrimitcal Seed coopHumera-

130 19

Rawian Seed coop Setit-1 23 157

Desta Berhe Commercialfarm

Setit-1 100 205

Total 250 583

Seed Multiplication

- Field supervision was done on chickpea seed multiplication fields in Amhara and Oromia regions.

- Field inspection by Tigray regional seed quality

control laboratory was conducted at Firiat

Gogolo, Firiat Haya, Kokob and Abo Gerima

wheat seed producer cooperative farms and

208.75ha was certified by the field inspectors.

Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE) will purchase the

certified seeds as to the agreement entered

between the two parties.

- AGP AMDe has taken an initiation to bring a new

sesame variety to a research system, which is selected and maintained by an innovative seed

selector farmer (Ato Maru) which was supplied for further testing and verification to Humera

Research Center. A team composed of four members from our project and Humera Research

Center conducted an assessment at My Segen area in Tigray region and observed that the new

variety has high yield performance compared to the previous varieties (Setit-1, Humera-1 and

Chickpea Seed Multiplication Field at Ade'a AGP Woreda (Erer FCU)


Hirhir which were considered as best varieties around Humera area). In addition the new variety

was observed to be more tolerant to water logging and different diseases like bacteria blight.

o Some amount of seed from the new variety was collected and given to Humera

Agricultural Research Center and other centers in Oromia and Amhara regions for

further testing and verification.

FCUs’ Chickpea seed distribution and planting under AMDe’s support in Amhara region

FCU Woreda

Qtydistributedto woredas

(MT)

# of farmers benefited Qtydistributed

to SHF

Areaplanted

(Ha)Male Female Total

Tsehay Dembia 19.85 501 13 514 19.85 198.5

Takusa 10.0 122 4 126 3.3 33

Chilga 7.75 294 13 307 7.75 74.5

Sub Total 37.6 917 30 947 30.9 306

Ghion Dejen 3.23 80 4 84 2.83 28.25

Awabal 3.95 83 3 86 2.38 23.75

Shebel 4.83 148 15 163 4.83 48.25

Sub Total 12.01 311 22 333 10.04 100.25

Wodera BasonaWorana

2.2 42 9 51 2.2 16.195

Mortina Jiru 7.95 164 22 186 7.95 50.725

Sub Total 10.15 206 31 237 10.15 66.92

Merkeb Bahir Dar Zuria 8.0 164 4 423 8.0 60

Grand Total 67.76 1,598 87 1,940 59.09 533

AGP-AMDe’s Seed Linkages

Maize: From the 57.1 MT of BH-661 maize hybrid seed that was distributed and planted in Amhararegion, 7,583 (413F) farmers from three FCUs (Admas, Damote and Gozamin) benefited by producing20,313 MT of grain.

Sesame: From the distributed 11.6 MT of Sesame (Humera-1 variety) in Amhara region, 1,546 (155F)farmers planted1,934 hectares of sesame and finally produced 773.6 MT of which 154.7 MT was used asseed and the remaining 618.9 MT was sold as grain.

From the distributed 19.6 MT of Sesame (Humera-1 & Setit-1 varieties) in Tigray region, 1,572 (314F)farmers planted 3,929 hectares of sesame and finally produced 1,964.5 MT of which 393 MT was used asseed and the remaining 1,571.5 MT was sold as grain.Wheat: From the distributed 418.6 MT of Wheat (Kekeba & Dandaa varieties) multiplied from theprevious grant seed source in Oromia region, 1,922 (192F) farmers and 1 FCU (Siko Mendo) planted2,790 hectares of wheat which is planned to be harvested in the next quarter. The crop stand is generallyrated very good.From the distributed 360.7 MT of Wheat (Kekeba variety) in Tigray region, 4,809 (962F) farmers planted

2405hectares of wheat and finally produced 8,416.3 MT of which 1,683.3 MT was used as seed and the

remaining 6,733 MT was sold as grain.


Chickpea: AMDe project has provided technical support to FCUs engaged in Kubuli seed multiplication

and grain production activities. As a result, 3 FCUs are engaged in Kubuli seed multiplication activities

using their own seed source.

Technology Transfer and Scaling up

Blended Fertilizer Initiative: The popularization of the new blended fertilization is under way through theestablishment of demo sites on wheat, maize, chickpea and sesame. Popularization the use of new blendedfertilizer and urea briquettes using farmer field days have attracted the interest of farmers, extensionagents and administrators in all four regions. Data collection is underway in all regions.

Wheat: Field Performance Evaluation of Blended Fertilizer and USG Demonstrations carried out atGasera and Agarfa AGP Woredas. The objective was to evaluate the performance of the Blended fertilizerand Urea Supper Granule/USG Demonstrations, to distribute the agronomic data collection form for thedemos and to give technical advice how to collect the data and avoid any technical error while collectingthe data.Maize: Yield data were collected from popularization demonstration commercial hybrid maize BH-661and pioneer varieties (Sheno and Lemu) using blended fertilizer NPS/DAP in eight potential woredas at 55demonstration sites of farmers and FTC plots in Amhara region. The summarized data will be presentedon the next quarter report.

Field Supervision carried out at urea supper granuleand deep placement demonstration sites on maizecrop at Gomma and Limmu Sekka AGP woredas inJimma zone of Oromia region. Accordingly, Urea

Supper Granule (USG) plots showed betterperformance than conventional urea in everydemonstration sites and the technology hasalready won the interest of the farmers atdemonstration sites and as a result farmersare demanding the technology.Yield data on maize fertilizer briquettedemonstrations were collected fromWondo Genet, Yem SPW & Ennemor-Innerworeda totally from 40 demo sites. Thecollected data showed that plot treated withUSG had yield increment on an average 12

quintal/ha against plot treated with urea granular fertilizer. Detail data collected from the sites indicatedbelow:

Briquette fertilizer demonstration results

No WoredaNo. of Demo

sites

Maize

Variety

Average Yield

Quintal/Hectare

USGUrea

Granular

1 Wondo Genet 5 BH-540 74.8 62.8

2 Yem SPW 20 Shone 84.63 73.11

3 Ennemor-Inner 15 Shone 75.03 62.73

Average 78.15 66.21

Cob from USG treatedplot

Cob from urea treated plot

USG impact on maize cob size and hence yield


Chickpea:

- Ten (10) soil samples have been collected in collaboration with Weliso Agricultural Office from

10 blended fertilizer demonstration sites at Weliso AGP woreda of Oromia region.

- Brief orientation on blended fertilizer demonstration on chickpea crop has been given to 10

farmers, 4 DAs and 1 woreda experts at Weliso woreda at Gurura FTC of Oromia region.

- Popularization of blended fertilizer conducted with improved chickpea variety called Arerti in

Chena woreda at 6 sites & Yem SPW at 4 sites of SNNPR. 10 farmers (all male) were participated

to conduct the demos. At the end of cropping season 300 farmers would be benefitted from the

technology promotion. NPKSZnB & NPS fertilizer formulations were applied for technology

popularization on 500 Sq. Meter.

Farmers’ Field Days: Farmers’ field days organized on sesame, maize and wheat crops blended fertilizer

and seed multiplication demonstrations at different woredas of Amhara region. The project organized

sesame regional and woreda field days in West Armachiho and Quara woredas and participated 182 (16F)

and 72 (15F) producer/commercial farmers and experts and officials at all levels, respectively.

A regional field day on maize and wheat was also organized at Womberma woreda and 243 (52F) lead

farmers and people from different institutions were participated. In the field days both blended fertilizer

and seed multiplication sites visited. During the field days extension agents explained the purpose of

improved varieties, blended fertilizer and seed multiplication demonstrations and the benefit to enhance

yield and income. In addition, farmers, together with the extension and development agents, moved

around the farm, and assessed the better performance of the improved varieties and blended fertilizer

treatments/urea briquette applications. Farmers appreciated the outstanding performance of the improved

varieties and the impact of blended fertilizer/urea briquette applications on the performance of maize,

wheat and sesame crops.

Farmers’ Field day was organized in collaboration with Agarfa-Kejewa FCU and Agarfa Agricultural Office

on wheat seed multiplication field and Urea Supper Granules Demonstration on wheat crop in Oromia

region. A total of 129 (16F) lead farmers and people representing different institutions participated in the

field day.

Farmers’ field day was organized on chickpea seed multiplication program in Ginir Woreda, Bale zone of

Oromia region. A total of 98 (5F) lead farmers and people from Ginir Woreda Administrator, agricultural

office and investment office heads, agronomic experts and Kebele participated in the field day. The

objective was:

To promote the chickpea varieties ACOS and Arerti and the seed multiplication program conducted with

support of AGP-AMDe in collaboration with Bale Green farm.

To discuss the intervention required to increase the seed multiplication program and increase the

adoption of best agricultural practices in chickpea seed and grain production to increase productivity and

quality of produce and support marketing of chickpea in the areas.

Farmers’ field days were organized by AGP-AMDe & woreda agricultural offices for lead farmers, DAs,

and Extension Agents, regional BOA, FCUs, regional zonal & woredas government officials to demonstrate

the importance of newly introduced technologies to the communities. 1865 (485F) participants attended

the field day during popularized technologies, fertilizer briquette, blended fertilizer, and newly released

maize BH-661 variety in Chena, Basketto, Yem, Alicho-Worero and Ennemor-Enner woredas of SNPPR


region. The participants appreciated the technologies and requested to use for coming crop season. All

popularized technologies, fertilizer briquette, blended fertilizer, and newly released maize BH-661 variety

showed significant yield increment against the conventional technologies. Particularly significant demand

created by the farmers to use blended fertilizer and maize BH-661 variety.

Tigray Regional Bureau of Agriculture conducted a field

day con activities performed by different stakeholders

including interventions performed by AGP-AMDe in

wheat VC areas. A total of 513 (68F) participants from

Region, zone, district and village level attended the field

day including invited participants by the project. The very

interesting thing is that AGP-AMDe interventions are

extremely explained by farmers and extension agents to

the regional higher officials and other participants.

- Tigray region Southern zone administration office and

Endamekoni administration office together with ESE

were organized a field day on popularization of high

yielding maize hybrid varieties. A total of 462 (130F)

participants from Region, zone, district and village

level attended the field day.

- Field day on sesame popularization of fertilizer demo and seed multiplication fields was held in Tigray

Region, Kafta Humera woreda, Rawian village at Mebrahitu Weldetinsae farm. A total of 177 (69F)

participants attended the field day.

Number of participants who attended field days in all regions

Region Technologies WoredasParticipants

Male Female Total

Amhara

Sesame fertilizer popularization and seedmultiplication

West

Armachiho

166 16 182


Quara 57 15 72

Maize & Wheat fertilizer popularization andseed multiplication

Womberma 191 52 243

OromiaWheat seed multiplication and Urea SupperGranules Demonstration

Agarfa 113 16 129

Chickpea seed multiplication Ginir 93 5 98

SNNPR

Maize BH-661 Chena 258 42 300

Maize BH-661 Basketto 370 50 420

Fertilizer Briquette Yem 302 48 350

Wheat seed multiplication Alicho-Worero 250 320 570

Blended fertilizer popularization Ennemor -

Enner

200 25 225

TigrayPopularization of high yielding maize hybridvarieties

Raya Azebo 332 130 462

Discussion after visiting maize hybrid sites duringthe field day, Tigray region



Kafta Humera 108 69 177

Wheat fertilizer popularization and seedmultiplication

Ofla 445 68 513

Total 2,885 856 3,741

Training & Capacity Building: AGP-AMDe project has provided agri-input chickpea ToT training to

improve knowledge-base and skill of extension staff and participating farmers. The skill developed help

farmers and extension staff better manage crop fields thereby increase yield and income of farm

households. In Amhara, chickpea agri-input ToT training was organized and 30 (5F) SMSs and kebele crop

production experts participated. Participants drown from four woredas and seven kebeles trained.

Certificate Award: Gasera Woreda Agricultural Office has awarded a certificate to USAID/AGP-AMDe

Project in recognition of the contribution it has made in the endeavour of agricultural development to the

woreda in the last three project years.

Analysis of the Input Supply

Challenges

- Low profit margins collected by the FCUs & PCs for the service provided on distribution.

- Ineffective Agri-input marketing system /input distribution/, inadequate number of sale points in

rural areas & Low commissions reduce incentives to participate the cooperatives in the fertilizer

business.

- Application of Blanket fertilizer recommendation & lack of fertilizer containing the important

essential plant nutrients.

- Lack of access to credit for farmers to purchase Agri-input as a result inadequate use of yield-

enhancing agricultural inputs

- Limited crop varieties development & shortage of basic and certified seeds of crops.

- Long distance to travel to purchase inputs particularly seed.

- Unrealistic demand estimation for Agro-inputs supply & lack of proper market information and

promotion system.

- Poor post-harvest technologies

- Lack of storage warehouse with wide space adjacent to the PCs

- Lack of skilled professionals to manage the FCUs under transformation

- Excessive and above normal rainfall in the season causing water logging problem and crop

development stagnant (chickpea)

- Lack of using proper agricultural practices like time of weeding, use of pesticides etc.

Opportunities

- The recent government`s plan to establish blended fertilizer plants in the four regions

- The soil mapping and analysis project will provide information to the blended fertilizer plants.

- The Relatively good main season in most districts

- Support and collaboration by stakeholders

- Favorable government policy encourages the private sector to engage in agricultural investment


Inputs: Key Events Undertaken, October – December 2014

Name of Event DateEventType

Location

ValueChain/C

rossCutting

Area

T M FName of Partner

Organizations

Field day onpopularization of highyielding maize hybridvarieties

Oct. 3 Fieldday

RayaAzebo

Maizeinput

462 332 130 Conducted by partners(ESE and Endamekoniworeda Administration)

Field day on sesamefertilizer popularizationdemos and seedmultiplication plots.

Oct. 19 Fieldday

KaftaHumera

Sesameinput

177 108 69 BoARD, ESE, HumeraResearch, Zone andworedaadministrations, Zoneand woreda agricultureoffices, AGP,Cooperative office,FCUs, PC and Farmers

Field day on wheatfertilizer popularizationdemos and seedmultiplication plots.

Nov. 1 Fieldday

Ofla Wheatinput

513 445 68 BoARD, ESE, AlamataResearch, Zone andworedaadministrations, Zoneand woreda agricultureoffices, AGP,Cooperative office,FCUs, PC and Farmers

Farmers’ Field day onwheat seed productionand input utilization

Dec. 13 Fieldday

ElebduAgarfa

Wheatinput

129 113 16 Agarfa Woreda BOAAgarfa Woreda AGPcoordination officeAgarfa Kejewa FCU

Farmers’ field day onmaizeBH-661 popularization

Oct. 5 Fieldday

Chenna Maizeinput

300 258 42 Chena WAO, Farmers

Farmers’ field day onmaizeBH-661 popularization

Oct. 20 Fieldday

Basketo Maizeinput

370 50 420 Basketo WAO,Farmers

Farmers’ field day onwheat seed multiplication

Nov.11 Fieldday

Alico-Worero

Wheatinput

570 250 320 SNNPRS BOA, Alicho-Worero WAO,AGP-PCU,SSE,SARI, Meliksilte FCU,Alichoworeda admin KebeleAdmin

Farmers’ field day onblended fertilizerpopularization

Dec. 8 Fieldday

Enemor-Enner

Input 225 200 25 SNNPRS BOA,WAO,AGP-PCU,Ennemor-Inner woredaAdmi. Kebele Admi

Chickpea agri-input ToT Nov.21

ToT Danglaworeda

Chickpeainput

30 25 5 FCU and woreda BoA

Maize & Wheat field day Oct. 26 Fieldday

Womberma(Shendi)

Maize &Wheat

243 191 52 Regional and zonepartner bureaus,woreda and kebeleoffices


Inputs: Activity Tracker (Gantt chart) October – December 2014

Activity Description Indicator UnitY4

Target

Q 2 (Oct. - Dec. 2014) Cumulative (Q1+Q2)


AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

Market promotion andlinkagesImplement phase one Tractabilityproject including roll out at threecoffee site and at the respectivewashing stations

Value & volume oftraceable coffee sold

3 3 3 40% 3 3 40%

ECX price & Quality standardanalysis

reliable andtransparentstandardsestablished

2 2 2 75% 2 2 75% Price analysiscompleted &presented to ECX.Profile mappingmeetings held

Int'l trade show promotion:Support sector to participate ininternational trade shows -AFCA, SCAA (including technicalsupport for ECEA to makeEthiopia portrait country in 2015show), and 1 other international

B2B meeting,markets linkages,export value &volume

3 Planned for Q3 & Q4

Trade missions to follow up ontrade show participation togetherwith associations and exporters(Tractability project site visit &selected buyers visit)

Markets linkages,export value &volume

2

Capacity building to host ICO2016 conference. Technicalsupport and Site visit to next ICOconference

Successful ICOconference, brandplacement

1 1 1 100%

Support annual ToH competitionto identify & encourage best lotsof coffee & promote themaccordingly

identify best lot ofcoffee

1 1 3 300% Planned for Q3



Target



AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

New technologies andmanagement practicesComplete establishment ofcertified cupping labs in Hawassa,Dilla and Jimma to improve ECXquality management system

Increased quality,price & gross margin 3

3 3 100%

Multi-stakeholder meetingfacilitated once a year in eachregion to update stakeholders onproject progress and ensure B2Bconnections

Market challenges,constraints &solutions identified

1

Through innovation grant fundintroduce new seedlings throughnursery establishment with PCand CIGs

Production,productivity &quality improved

1,000,000 0 600,000 1,000,000 2,600,000 260%

Implement seedling distributionand planting strategy to introducenew seedlings through nurseryestablishment with PC and CIGs(continuing into year 3, 4 and 5)

# of Seedlingsdistributed

1,000,000 0 0 1,000,000 1,350,000 135%

Conduct Q grader training andcalibration courses using the Qgrader system

Transparent,consistent & reliablegrading and pricingsystem

36 18 36 200% 18 36 200%

Completion of grant awards,washing stations, SCAAcertification (In-Kind for 3 LabEquipment),

Improved post-harvest handling

12 4 5 125% 12 13 108% Wet mill for 5 FCU’s& 3 ECX labs, Oromia1 certification,Yirgachefe 3, Keffa 1

Capacity building



Target



AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

Through the innovation grantfund: 1) capacitate ECEA torecruit industry best practiceexperience, 2) assist in organizingan annual international conference- Support ECEA to host aneffective, high impact conference& training for members

# of eventattendants

300 300 375 125% 300 375 125%

Facilitate the proper handoverand distribution of gradingequipment’s procured for partnerFCUs in kind grant

# of FCUs &PCsreceived

6 6 6 100% 6 6 100%

Conduct SMFM agricultural PHHtraining of training to farmertrainers/lead farmers and cascade(only where necessary)

# of trainees 5,000 3095 5000 3173 63%

Conduct SMFM managementtraining (gender focusedleadership, record keeping,business planning and marketing)to cooperative leaders and staff

# of trainees 190 90 21 23% 90 21 23%

Quality improvement training inharvesting and processing for wetand natural processing- Dry Mill Jul-Sept- Harvesting Oct-Dec- Processing and Drying BedsNov-Feb- Dry Milling at the farm andexport level Mar-Jun

# of people trained 200 100 69 69% 100 69 69%



Target



AchievedTarget

Achieved

Number % Number %

Strengthen the capacity of MoA,marketing and cooperativebureaus and FCA to delivertraining on primary marketing,quality coffee, seedling productionand other good agriculturalpractices

# of Trainings 120 120 125 104%

Roaster training to grow internalconsumption and for qualityassurance at cupping labs

# of trainees 20 Planned for Q4


COMPONENT II: IMPROVING ACCESS TO AGRICULTURAL

FINANCEOverview

AGP-AMDe Access to Finance Component objective continued to be addressing the systemic constraints

through the following strategies:

- Create strong and lasting linkages between agricultural and financial sector actors to secure

working capital and investment loan facility.

- Improve financial management capacity of agricultural actors

- Promote the expansion of leasing services leveraging the USAID DCA program

- Implement Community Warehouse Receipt pilot in Amhara region


- A total of 26,029,281 million USD rural loans disbursement disbursed for 16 value chain actors

in sesame, maize, coffee & wheat value chains in AGP-AMDe project areas.

- Enhancing savings mobilization and credit supply capacity of SACCOs, training on SACCO financial

and risk management and strategic business planning was conducted for 87 SACCO leaders, staffs

and promoters for three days.

- Experience sharing visit to best practice areas was conducted to 84 SACCO leaders, employees

and experts from Western Tigray, Amhara and SNNP region

- Community receipt system cascaded to five more PCs in Damot and Gozamin FCUs

- SACCOs have mobilized Birr 3,330,042 from their members and disbursed Birr 3,416,298 to their

members.

- SACCOs’ members increased by 512 (46 female) in Amhara region

- Edget Lerobit SACCO in Amhara has started providing credit insurance


Technical Assistance: In an effort to address one of the challenges identified the project is actively working

in supporting FCUs in preparing loan application package that includes building business plan for project

financing and preparing a simple cash flow forecast for working capital and investment loan

• Following the continuous support to partners, USD 83,522,986.34 working capital loan

applications were submitted to government and private banks. So far USD 40,881,289.64 and

26,029,281.18 have been approved and disbursed, respectively.

• In Oromiya 12, in Amhara 5 FCUs were technically assisted on the preparation of output

marketing plan to be used for loan application to financial institutions. As the result of the technical

assistance and training conducted on business planning almost all cooperative unions were applied

to Banks for output financing.


Total loan (million USD)

RegionAmount

Applied

Amount

Approved

Amount

DisburseUse rate

Amhara 19.61 8.09 5.29 65%

Honey 0.16 0.16

Maize 3.44

Sesame 16.01 7.93 5.29 67%

Oromia 7.40

Chickpea 1.06

Coffee 1.69

Maize 2.99

Wheat 1.66

SNNPR 27.00 22.54 10.49 47%

Coffee 18.28 15.54 6.66 43%

Maize 1.53 0.66 0.66 100%

Sesame 6.34 6.34 3.17 50%

Wheat 0.85

Tigray 29.52 10.25 10.25 100%

Sesame 28.59 9.78 9.78 100%

Wheat 0.92 0.48 0.48 100%

Grand Total 83.52 40.88 26.03 64%

Implementation of community receipt system (CRS): The CRS is arranged in a way that farmers

deliver their produces to FCUs’ warehouses via primary cooperatives in which they are members. In

return farmers will receive a good received note (GRN), which they can pledge with ACSI to access credit.

FCU, once they received the grain from primary cooperatives, will becomes responsible for the control

of the commodities to be used as collateral. The system is deemed to improve farmers’ situation by availing

them secured access to credit and reliable storage facilities for their grain, it gives them the option to sell

when they can get the best price.

As one of the interventions area of the project, last year AGP-AMDe with the Ethiopian Agricultural

Transformation Agency (ATA) has been implementing a pilot Community Receipt System (CRS) project

in Wemberema and Debre-Elias woredas at two FCUs(Gozamin and Damot) and four PCs ( Genet, Guay,

Burafer and Burafer). Taking last year lessons the project has been scaling up to other five PCs which are

found in Damot and Gozamin FCUs operational area. The new participant PCs are Gofichima, Dejiba and

Debre-Elias Zuria from Debre-Elias Woreda and Wogedad and Zobint PCs from Womberma Woredas.


Participant Woredas Participant Unions (FCU) Participant Primary cooperatives (PCs)

Debre-Elias Gozamin Genet, Guay, Gofchima,Dejiba,

DebreElias Zuria

Womberma Damo Shindi, Burafer,Wogedad, Zobint

To facilitate CRS implementation, CPA and FCUs have assigned focal persons at regional, Zonal, Woreda

and FCU levels. Focal persons are responsible to create awareness at community and PCs levels and to

provide technical support to PCs and FCUs.

Training was provided to 19(M=9,F=10) staffs of CRS participant PCS on role and responsibilities of

key players, work flow under CRS, Principles of grain quality and post-harvest losses, physical analysis

and wheat grading procedures and criteria, post-harvest handling, grain storage and warehouse

management. In addition CRS program launched at Dejiba, Gofchima, Debre Elias zuria, Wogedad and

Zobint Pcs.

Implementation of SACCOs’ development program: Experience sharing visit was arranged to 84, out

of which 17 are female, staffs, chairperson and SACCOs experts of Regional, zonal and Woreda

Cooperative at Embaba Haya SACCO(in Tigray region) and Lidet and Soser SACCO Unions( in Amhara).

The experience sharing visit aimed to improve saving mobilization, Credit management, financial product

development and implementation, community mobilization to be member of SACCOs and SACCO’s

governance capacity of SACCOs and CSACUs.

SACCO training on savings & membership mobilization, financial management, risk management, saving &

credit administration, governance and planning for 87 out of which 23 are women SACCO board chairs

and employees (board chairs, managers, Accountants, credit officer and cooperative experts) was

conducted in the objective of improving the service provision SACCOs and increase their outreach and

after the training participants set SACCO goals and strategies to implement right after the training taking

their current statuses as baseline.

Analysis of Access to Finance

Lack of proactive and strategic thinking and action from FCU staff, especially managers on improving theirbusinesses. Even though a complete-packaged training was given on the most important topics like,planning ahead and per the harvesting cycle of each commodity, financial management, business plandevelopment for working capital loan, output marketing plan and analysis, pricing strategy, the FCUmanagers couldn’t build on that rather they just get back to the routines and keep themselves busy whiletheir FCUs run business as usual. Most of them couldn’t develop their business plan and apply for bankloan on time, rather they prefer to go to the bank at the last minute. As opposed to the trainings’ goal,which was enabling the FCUs staff to strategically lead their businesses on their own, our staff has to goout to the FCUs to remind and assist them to prepare business plan, other necessary documents, takethem to the bank to apply and even follow up the bank process.


Delay in audit service and report submission to FCUs from the respective cooperatives promotion officesespecially in SNNPR and Oromiya regions created a huge impediment on the loan application and approvalprocess

Occurrence of long overdue nonperforming loans from CBE and MFIs on some FCUs like Merkeb,South

Omo and Oyssa Dawro FCUs was observed which is also another formidable challenge to access bank

loan on time. Some of the loans are more than 30 years old and some are taken by member primary

cooperatives of the unions as opposed to the unions themselves which makes it difficult to gather adequate

evidence to convince the current leadership to pay them back.


Access to Finance: Key Events Undertaken, October – December 2014

Date Name of EventLocation (city,

woreda,region/country)

ValueChain/Cross

CuttingArea

Total Male FemaleName(s) of AMDeTeam Attending

Name of PartnerOrganizations

Nov. 4 - 8,2014

Experience sharing visiton SACCOs bestpractices

Embaba HayaSACCO( Tigray)LidetUnion(Amhara )

Access tofinance

31 30 1 Ephrem Tesfaye, TeferiWondale and DemekeMekuria

CPA

Dec. 20 - 21,2014

CRS launching program Debre-Elias andWombermaWoreda

Access toFinance

28 26 2 Fantahun Ameshe,Demeke Mekuria

CPA, ACSI, Damot &Gozamin FCU

Dec. 23-25,2014

CRS technical training toparticipant PCs staff

Debre-Markos Access toFinance

19 9 10 Tibebu Ashagrie,Demeke Mekuria

CPA, Damot and GozaminFCUs

Oct. 23-25,2014

SACCO developmenttraining

Ambo Access toFinance

23 16 7 Olika Urgessa Cooperatives, FCAexperts, SACCO union,Primary SACCO

Oct. 16 -18/2014

SACCO training onsavings& membershipmobilization, financialmanagement, governance& planning

Humera Sesame 14 8 6 Assefa Abebe Eyasu kaza SACCO union,Bahreselam, Sure andWalya primary SACCOsand Tsegede woredacooperative office

Oct. 27 - 29,2014

SACCO training onsavings& membershipmobilization, financialmanagement, governance& planning

Maichew Wheat andhoney

24 16 8 Assefa Abebe Friat Ofla SACCO union,Tilahun Yigzaw SACCOunion, Endedo, Meseret,Embaba Hashenge, EmbabaHaya, Lemlem Sale andHaftamnesh primarySACCOs, and Ofla &Endamehoni woredacooperative offices


Date Name of EventLocation (city,

woreda,region/country)

ValueChain/Cross

CuttingArea

Total Male FemaleName(s) of AMDeTeam Attending


Dec. 7, 2014 SACCO experiencesharing on pestperforming SACCO (Embaba Haya )

Endamehoni Wheat, honeyand sesame

42 32 10 Assefa Abebe Friat Ofla SACCO union,Tilahun Yigzaw SACCOunion, Endedo, Meseret,Embaba Hashenge, EmbabaHaya, Lemlem Sale andHaftamnesh primarySACCOs, and Ofla,Endamehoni and Tsegedeworeda cooperativeoffices.

Dec. 10 - 12,2014

SACCO developmentTraining

Yirgalem, SNNPR Access tofinance

31 29 2 Belete Lemma, EphremTesfaye

Sidama Chalala, Agnot,Kaffa, Yenetsanet FanaSACCO Unions and UdudaEdget, Andnet, BecheBulchano, WoreboBalewold, Gambo, TigilFire, Ewket Birhan,Behabeha Primary SACCO,Chena, Decha, Sodo,Cheha, Enemorna Ener,Gorche Wondo Genet andMeskan Woreda MCO

Dec. 15 - 17,2014

SACCO ExperienceSharing Visit

Endamehoni,Embaba Haya,SACCO, Tigrayand SoserSACCO unionAmhara

Access tofinance

31 29 2 Belete Lemma Same as above


Access to Finance: Key Partners and Intervention during the October – December 2014

Partners Location Interventions during the

quarter

Explain observed

major results

TMMCF, Dansha Aurora, Setit

Humera, Kafta Humera

Sesame producer & Sales

Cooperative, Lemlem

Welkayt, Tekeze, Bokra,

Hashenge, shewit Alamata,

Lemlem Raya,

Tigray Training on business plan

development, planning,

marketing and price strategies &

coaching services

2014/15 Institutional

Bankable business plan

preparation is on

process and

accomplished

Embeba Haya, Tilahun Yigzaq

SACCOs and Endamehoni

Woreda Coop Desk

Tigray Peachtree accounting software

training & Coaching service

Started preparation of

the SACCO’s financial

statement using

Peachtree accounting

and data entry

Sidama Elto, Admas, Oyisa

Dawro, Melik, Sourth Omo,

Edget, Yem Tebaber, Godefo

Kafa, Yirgacheffe Coffee, Bench

Maji Forest Coffee, Damota

Wolaita, Tepi Coffee FCUs and

SNNPR MCB

Hawassa, SNNPR Business and Market planning

training


Access to Finance: Activity Tracker (Gantt chart), October – December 2014

Activity DescriptionIndicator and Unit Y4

Target

This Quarter Cumulative -Q 1 + Q 2


Number % Number %

Market promotion andlinkages

Conduct national workshop onlesson learned and ways forwardbetween VC actors and financialinstitutions

No of participants 59 0 0 59 0 0 It is done on one-on-onebasis so no need to conducta workshop

Link VC actors with financialinstitutions to access outputfinancing and project loans

Amount of loandisbursed in millionUSD

42 20 26 130 23 26 113

Conduct promotional workshopon DCA/ leasing/ product tobanks, private firms and FCUs

No participants 24 24 0 0 0 0 Need consultation withUSAID

Stakeholders consultationWorkshop aimed at bringingactors together on CRS

# of participants 63 0 0 63 0 0 The CRS scale up to theother regions is overtakenby ATA

New Technologies andmanagement practices

Follow up with Kifya on theimplementation of access tofinance and savings throughmobile technology in rural areas

No of follow-upmeeting and fieldvisits

12 3 1 33 6 4 67 Kifiya is re-purposing theproject due to difficulty inimplementation

CRS Program Launching andsupervision of the work flow

# PCs where theprogram is launched

20 20 5 25 20 5 25 The CRS scale up to theother regions is overtakenby ATA, so the achievementis only for Amhara



Target



Number % Number %

Connecting portfolio andpipeline businesses to newtechnologies and managementpractices: Our potentialinvestments in a beeswax andsesame company will introducenew technology to the companyenabling them to add value andincrease export prices on waxand processed sesame.

# of companies 2 1 0 0 2 0 0

Capacity Building

International Benchmarking tripon cooperative and ruralfinancingConduct trainings for FCU staffon business plan development,planning, marketing and pricingstrategies

No of participants 132 0 0 132 130 98

Conduct trainings to SACCOstaff and RCA experts onbusiness management, financialmanagement, risk management

No of participants 122 0 87 122 123 101

Conduct 4 trainings to SACCOaccountants and cashiers onpeach tree accounting software

No of participants 28 28 0 0 0 0 due to budget shortfall newway of delivering the trainingis being considered

Delivering training andawareness creation campaign onCRS

# of training &awareness creationcampaign attendants

4,072 0 0 4072 7 0.2 CRS is overtaken by ATA inall regions except Amhara

Private Equity Training: Thisactivity will be conducted on anindividual/company basis duringthe investment facilitationprocess.

# of companiescoached

3 1 0 0 2 0 0



Target



Number % Number %

Access to Finance

Provide coaching service toFCUs, PCs and private firms onbusiness plan development,record keeping, finacnialstatement /auditing preparationand planning

No of MSMEsassisted

51 51 17 33 102 33 32 Tigray and SNNP didn't doany coaching in Q2

Assist SACCOs to conductgrass root level training andcampaign for members andpotential members

No of campaigns 90 30 0 0 0 0 Lack of funding

Provide technical assistancethrough coaching to SACCOsto expand their outreach andservices to value chain actors

No of SACCOSassisted

45 45 2 4 75 2 3 The SACCO trainingis givenin Q2, so coaching isexpected in Q3

Experience sharing visit on bestpractice of SACCOperformance

No of visitors 90 90 84 93 90 84 93 Oromiya didn't conduct b/cbudget not approved

Evaluation workshop of theongoing CRS pilot project

# of participants 44 0 0 44 31 70 Some participants fromgovernment office couldn'tattend the workshopbecause of emergency work

Field Visit for selection of CRSscale up

# of FCUs and PCsVisited

24 0 5 24 5 21 CRS is overtaken by ATA inall regions except Amhara

Facilitation in order for availingwarehouse space, staff, printedmaterials and equipment forCRS participating FCUs and PCs

# of field Visits 12 0 1 12 1 8 CRS is overtaken by ATA inall regions except Amhara



Target



Number % Number %

Sourcing, Assessing andPreparing SMEs for investment.These are the main activitiesdone by the AMDe PE teams.We anticipate moving threecompanies through this processin the coming year.

# number of CIMs(investment analysisreports) prepared

3 1 0 0 2 0 0

Convening, preparing andconnecting investors to SMEs.Each month the AMDe PE Teamhas meetings with investors inthe U.S. We will also be hostingthem in Addis and introducingthem to companies.

# of investor tripshosted in Ethiopia

2 1 0 0 2 0 0


COMPONENT III: IMPROVING AGRIBUSINESS ENABLING

ENVIRONMENT

Overview

The goal of the enabling environment component is to increase competitiveness through the following

actions: increased private sector participation; reduction of output market distortions; improved access

to agricultural finance and promotion of investments; increased efficiencies in transportation and logistics;

strengthen the institutional structure for policy review and implementation; and greater public and private

sector engagement in relevant value chain policy reviews.

The critical first step in policy change in Ethiopia is changing the mind set of major stakeholders in the

policy making matrix. The Government does not welcome outside intrusion into the policy determining

processes, but is strongly interested in international experience relevant to Ethiopia’s conditions. Through

informal individual consultations and major conferences AGP-AMDe has been successful in providing the

basis for evolution of the mind set on key policy issues.


AGP-AMDe efforts for this quarter were focused on moving towards completion of ten papers on

agricultural price policy, planning and implementing the Agricultural Price Policy Conclusions, and

gathering of additional data and information for the ongoing domestic transport cost analysis.


The following enabling environment activities have been undertaken during this quarter:

Creating a Competitive Fertilizer Distribution System: AGP-AMDe has been working on

bringing a number of grain traders back into fertilizer distribution. This would expand coverage,

accelerate the growth rate, and show where cooperatives were deficient so that remedial action could

be taken to strengthen those cooperatives. This is being done because grain traders have been barred

from obtaining licenses to distribute fertilizer.

As a result of AGP-AMDe contributions to get this policy agenda to the attention of policy makers,

MoA/ATA team has prepared and presented to key stakeholders a policy proposal for revision of the

national fertilizer policy and re-establishment of the National Fertilizer Industry Agency, which was

dissolved as redundant in 2006.

The policy proposal recommends that the Agency as responsibilities related to fertilizer production,

import and export, fertilizer demand development, pricing, marketing and distribution, fertilizer quality

control, fertilizer registration, fertilizer competence assurance, fertilizer sub-sector governance, and

coordination with other bodies. To carry out its responsibilities, the Agency shall engage in advocacy,

encouraging the involvement of the private sector, cooperative unions and primary cooperatives in the

fertilizer manufacturing industry, decide the type of fertilizers to be imported or locally manufactured,


develop guidelines to permit fertilizer production for regional enforcing bodies to facilitate manufacturing

permit, facilitate the development of fertilizer quality standard and follow-up execution and decide upon

suspension of fertilizers from sale pursuant to the laboratory test result. These are policy issues that AGP-

AMDe has been pushing for the last three and a half years of project implementation. The proposed draft

proclamations (i) Revised Fertilizer Proclamation and (ii) National Fertilizer Agency Re-establishment

Proclamation are attached to this report.

Policy Change by Separating the ECX Warehouse System from that of ECX Trading s System: AGP-

AMDe has been working with ECX on steps involved in divesting warehouse operations from ECX, which

would be the first step for the evolution of warehousing and grading regulatory system that supports the

growth of third party(i.e private sector) warehousing and grading, in addition to the ECX one. As part of

this effort, in year three AGP-AMDe organized study tour to South Africa and Colombia for ECX Board

and management for benchmarking international warehouse best practices to inform the separation of

ECX warehouse system from that of ECX trading platform.

Based on lessons learned from the AGP-AMDe organize benchmarking international warehouse trip to

South Africa and Colombia , a Regulations to establish a new Warehouse Public Enterprise has been

developed by a committee comprised of MoT and ECX. The Committee had submitted the draft

Regulations to the Minister of Trade for review, and subsequently the Regulation has been passed the

council of Ministers in this quarterly. Implementation for separating the ECX warehouse from that of the

ECX trading system will begin once the Regulation is officially gazetted.

Price Policy for Cereals including Wheat Subsidies and Cereal Export Bans: The first step in

impacting this area is to prepare a paper that contributes new ideas to the discussion of cereals price

policy. The entry points for this work are the current policies of export bans for cereals and imports, and

subsidies for wheat. This paper is in response to requests from the Government for a comprehensive

analysis and set of policy recommendations.

In this quarter AGP-AMDe team major effort has been on ending the large annual wheat imports. The

Government is reluctant to remove these imports, even though they’re costly to overall growth.

However, AGP-AMDe focus group efforts reinforce the view from Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise and

the Government more broadly that the present system of marketing cereals is unable to deliver the large

quantities of cereal of a quality suitable to milling and baking of bread. The problem is not the volume of

wheat produced but the marketed quality. Until that problem is solved it will not be possible to remove

those imports and their deleterious effect on wheat production. AGP-AMDe is working on how to solve

that problem.

Domestic Transport Cost Analysis: Addressing transportation and logistical bottlenecks is essential for

improving competiveness of the six value chains that AGP-AMDe works on. The efficiency of transport

and logistics is important in determining the success of revenue generation for farmers and producers.

Year four of AGP-AMDe plan includes a domestic transport cost analysis and developing interventions for

improvement. AGP-AMDe team has continued field work to gather information and data that would be

the basis for the domestic transport cost analysis.


AGP-AMDe transport and logistics team has been working to identify weak links in the chain of marketing,

storage and processing for each of the six AGP-AMDe commodities. Initial assessment of fieldwork

findings suggests that cooperatives are disadvantaged by regulation, as well as suffering from constraining

corporate policy and logistics.

Interpretation and implementation of government rules varies from place to place. Restrictions in setting

loading and unloading rates, in forcing primary cooperatives (PCs) to source their products from certain

markets, and in banning Farmer Cooperative Union (FCU) trucks from undertaking non-coop business

are counterproductive, stifling innovation and entrepreneurship. Other examples are government

organization of PC laborers for loading and unloading trucks, and setting wage rates. In one Woreda, the

local administration has prohibited a PC from hiring out its warehouse to generate extra income. In

another, the administration requires PC to buy from its members on the local market, rather than allowing

members to sell to PC at the PC warehouse. In this over-regimented environment, coop management

tends not to invest effort to find out about new possibilities: one FCU has been uncertain whether

government would allow it to export maize in a glut year but hasn’t tried to find out. Opportunities are

thus missed and coop profitability rarely achieves its potential. Coop members suffer in consequence.

FCUs instinctively want to own trucks. No analysis exists to show whether this is a more efficient solution,

compared to renting trucking capacity as needed. Data collected suggests that FCUs’ capacity use of their

fleets is lower than that of the private sector, possibly because FCUs’ logistics staff have no personal stake

in the trucks’ profitability, but more likely because FCU management limits the options for trucking

productivity, e.g. bans on rental of spare capacity to outsiders. Separately, bad roads to some PCs raise

trucking costs; floodable roads mean that PC crops can be ‘trapped’ for several months in the PC

warehouse. Poor-quality PC warehousing is not so important if storage periods there are brief. But

delays in collection from the PC often occur, with additional costs in shrinkage and deterioration of the

commodity. This is particularly true for chickpea, which soon suffers weevil attacks. And limited

warehousing capacity can severely limit the share of the local harvest that flows through the coop system,

as do slow flows of credit for crop purchases, as well as payments for crops purchased, from coops.

FCU logisticians tend to have crops trucked PC warehouses to the FCU’s own warehouse then try to

market them, whereas private traders may find a market ahead of time and then save costs by trucking

directly from the village to the urban destination. Warehouse managers tend not to use systematic, well-

stacked stock rotation system; tracking and tracing for inventory management is lacking. Larger FCU

warehouses would benefit from mechanization, currently absent.

All coops dealing in coffee and sesame lament long, costly and unjustifiable queues at ECX. Despite the

queues and other clear inefficiencies, ECX does provide a clear domestic marketing structure for

exportable commodities. Domestic transport cost and related data and information gathering has been

finalized in this quarter and domestic transport cost analysis is planned to be completed in next quarter.


COMPONENT IV: GRANTS TO STIMULATE INNOVATION AND

INVESTMENT

Overview

The Innovation Fund is a key resource available to facilitate investments in a broad range of competiveness

enhancing activities mainly focusing on innovative approaches and technologies. The project identifies

strategic leverage entry points in each value chain and collaborating partners for innovative grant

interventions. Emphasis is put on initiating and delivery of foundation grants as smart matching funds to

establish a strong base for investments and sustainability.

The innovative activities funded by AGP-AMDe grants will lead to expansion of service networks and

increased value addition to create demand pull and improved service delivery for farmers, which will result

in access to new resources, information and markets subsequently leading to adoption of new technologies

and increased income opportunities. It will also lead to changes in processes and mindsets of project

partners with built in components for sustainability of the initiatives beyond funding periods.


Grants Awarded: Forty one new grants worth USD 146,783 were awarded in this quarter. To-date, of

the total USD 14.2 million AGP-AMDe Innovation and Demonstration Fund, AMDe has awarded 291

grants worth a total of USD 12.4 million, of which USD 7,321,479 (59%) has been disbursed; while grants

in the amount of USD 2 million are in the process of approval. The total grant awarded will attract

approximately USD 14,883,109 matching contribution by grantees and third party partners.

Innovation Grants Awarded By Region, USD

Region # of Grants

Awarded

To-date

Amount

Awarded, To-

date (USD)

# of Grants

Awarded,

This Quarter

Amount

Awarded, This

Quarter (USD)

Amhara 62 2,459,693 10 31,600

Tigray 50 2,193,946 7 49,764

SNNPR 60 2,218,519 8 22,278

Oromia 107 5,059,409 15 38,141

Addis 12 469,705 1 5,000

Total 291 12,401,272 41 146,783


Innovation Grants Awarded By Value Chain, USD

Value Chain # of Grants

Awarded To-

date

Amount Awarded,

To-date (USD)

# of Grants

Awarded,

This Quarter

Amount

Awarded, This

Quarter (USD)

Sesame 45 2,889,440 7 53,212

Coffee 48 2,250,196 7 23,131

Chickpea 43 1,389,032 5 19,090

Maize 47 1,308,027 6 11,060

Wheat 65 1,206,590 7 17,380

Honey 35 806,747 9 22,910

Finance 3 461,905 0 0

Fertilizer Blending 5 2,089,335 0 0

Total 291 12,401,272 41 146,783

Summary of Innovation Grant Capital Investments, (USD)

Value Chain Major Grant Activity

Investment

Total

Investment

cost

Capital Investment

Completed

Capital

Investment

Completed-

Amount

4 warehouses (5000 MT) 2,294,639 4 warehouses 2,294,639

Sesame 5 sesame processing plants 2,021,000 1 processing plants (TMF) 400,000

Sesame Total 4,315,639 2,694,639

10 washing stations & equipment 1,685,236 In progress 40,237

1 hulling station & equipment 293,679 1 hulling equipment 74,776

Coffee 45 coffee pulpers & drying beds 110,338 45 coffee pulpers & drying

beds

110,338

4 ECX Labs furnished with lab

equipment 110,036

4 ECX Labs furnished with lab

equipment

110,036

Coffee Total 2,199,289 335,387

1 warehouse (5000 MT) 478,378 1 warehouse (5000 MT) 478,378

3 tractors & implements 212,714 2 tractors & implements 116,968

Chickpea 1 value addition processing plant

(Guts) 784,993

1 value addition processing

plant (Guts)

784,993

1 seed cleaning & packing

machine

32,000 Not completed 0

1 chickpea processing & packing

plant with color sorter

(AgroProm)

408,381 1 chickpea processing &

packing plant with color

sorter (AgroProm)

408,381



Investment

Total

Investment

cost

Capital Investment

Completed

Capital

Investment

Completed-

Amount

2 small-scale chickpea processing

mills


Chickpea Total 2,027,406 1,788,720

Maize 7 maize warehouses (six 5000MT,

one 2500MT) 2,896,774

2 maize warehouses

(5000MT)904,481


machines


1 tractor & implements 82,161 Not completed 0

1 flour mill plant 191,626 Not completed 40

Total Maize 3,634,203 904,481

Wheat 5 Tractors & implements

519,427

Not completed 0


machines


57 wheat threshers 199,500 56 wheat threshers 196,000

1 seed warehouse (1,100MT) 131,931 Not completed 0

Total Wheat 960,857 196,000

Honey 1 modern honey processing plant

153,264

1 modern honey processing

plant153,264

4 sets of modern honey

equipment

132,667 1 set of modern honey

equipment38,615

4 modern beekeeping

demonstration site and

technology centers


500 modern beehives with

accessories

80,276 500 modern beehives with

accessories

80,276

1 honey storage & processing

center


Total Honey 742,897 272,155

Finance 94 endpoint devices (mobile

banking

89,300 94 endpoint devices (mobile

banking

89,300

2 bank branches opened by

partner

688,239 2 bank branches opened by

partner

688,239

Total Finance 777,539 777,539



Investment

Total

Investment

cost

Capital Investment

Completed

Capital

Investment

Completed-

Amount

Fertilizer

Blending

one 50MT/hr blended fertilizer

factory, & 1 front end loader

787,600 one 50MT/hr blended

fertilizer factory & 1 front

end loader

695,461

One factory housing warehouse 549,832 One factory housing

warehouse

589,702

Total Input 1,337,432 1,285,163

Grading &

PHH

Equipment

15 sets of PHH equipment 116,200 15 sets of PHH equipment 116,200

39 sets of grading equipment 228,472 15 sets of PHH equipment 225,837

Total Grading & PHH equipment 344,672 342,037

Total Investment Cost $16,339,934

Total Investment Completed $8,596,161

Total

Key Results by Value Chain and Cross-Cutting Activities

Sesame Innovation Grants: To-date AGP-AMDe has issued 45 grants worth $2,889,440, including 7 new

grants during the quarter, to support innovative interventions in the sesame value chain. To address critical

storage and processing constraints, AGP-AMDe innovations grants and investments by partners provided

for establishment of four 5000 MT-capacity sesame warehouses. In addition 5 large sesame processing

plants to complement the warehouse investments were established. These processing plants will enable

the sesame producers to meet international quality standards and sell to high-end sesame markets such

as Europe, US and Japan.

Summary of innovation grant and partner investment under the sesame value chain:

- 4 large sesame warehouses (all 5000 MT-Capacity Warehouses)

- five 5-7 MT per hour capacity sesame processing plants

- 2 International conferences

Chickpea Innovation Grants: To-date AGP-AMDe has issued 43 grants worth $1,389,032, including 5

new grants during the quarter, to support innovative interventions in the chickpea value chain. To expand

seed production and processing capacities of farmer cooperatives, innovation grants provide three

tractors and implements, one seed cleaning and packing machine and two small-scale chickpea processing

mills. Two large chickpea value-addition processing plants, enabled through partnership with private sector

investors, also introduce new technologies and high-end processing to improve chickpea value chain

competitiveness. New technology seed grants also provided 277.7 MT improved Kabuli variety chickpea


basic seeds for multiplication and increased production. One 5,000 MT-capacity warehouse was also

enabled through innovation grants and partner investment.

Major areas of innovation grant and partner investment under the chickpea value chain.

- 1 large warehouse 5,000 MT capacity (Becho Woliso FCU at Tulu Bolo, Oromia)

- 277.7 MT improved chickpea basic seed

- 3 tractors and agricultural implements

- 1 value addition processing plant (Shiro)—Guts Agro Industry

- 1 seed cleaning and packing machine

- 1 large chickpea processing and packing plant including color sorter (AgroProm International PLC)

- 2 small-scale chickpea processing mills (women grantees)

Coffee Innovation Grants: To-date AGP-AMDe has issued 48 grants worth $2,250,196, including

7 new grants during the quarter, to support innovative interventions in the coffee value chain.

These innovation grants catalyze partner investment that improve coffee processing capacity by

establishing 10 coffee washing stations and one hulling station (both equipped with modern coffee

washing and hulling equipment); and 45 coffee pulpers and drying beds. Coffee grants to enhance

market linkages also provide modern laboratory equipment and facilitate SCAA certification for

four ECX laboratories at Addis, Jimma, Hawassa and Dilla. Through partnership grants, and

investment by both ECX and international buyers, the first traceability project was also launched

and is under implementation. New technology coffee grants also provide 5,000,000 new coffee

seedling varieties through partnership with seven unions. Other grants designed to facilitate

market linkages support the cooperative-ECX conference, international coffee conferences, and

provide C.A.F.E. certification for Oromia Union.

Summary of innovation grant and partner investments under the coffee value chain:

- 10 coffee washing stations equipped with modern coffee processing equipment

- 1 coffee hulling station with modern equipment

- 45 coffee pulping machines and drying beds

- 4 ECX labs (Addis, Jimma, Hawassa and Dilla labs) furnished with modern laboratory equipment

for certification by SCAA.

- 1 C.A.F.E. Certification for Oromia Coffee Union

- 5,000,000 improved variety coffee seedlings distributed

- 1 ECX-cooperatives annual conference facilitated

- 2 international coffee conferences conducted

Honey Innovation Grants: To-date AGP-AMDe has issued 35 grants worth $806,747, including 9 new

grants during the quarter, to support innovative interventions in the honey value chain. These innovation

honey grants introduce new technologies and equipment to improve honey processing quality to enhance

Ethiopian honey export. The partnership grants provide one modern honey processing plant, three sets

of modern honey equipment, and four modern beekeeping demonstration sites and technology centers.


AGP-AMDe grant and technical assistance facilitated two EU accreditations to certify Ethiopian honey and

improve honey export to European market. Partnership honey grants also provide for two trade shows

(one national and another international), and 500 modern beehives with accessories; and establish 3

farmers research groups to provide training.

Summary of innovation grant and partner investment under the honey value chain.

- 1 modern honey processing plant

- 4 sets of modern honey equipment

- 4 modern beekeeping demonstration sites and technology centers

- 2 honey trade shows

- 2 EU accreditations and certifications

- 500 modern beehives with accessories (400 distributed to women groups)

- 3 farmers research groups to provide training

- 1 honey storage and processing center

Wheat Innovation Grants: To-date AGP-AMDe has issued 65 grants worth $1,206,590, including 7 new

grants during the quarter, to support innovative interventions in the wheat value chain. The innovation

wheat grants attracted investments from partners to improve wheat productivity, introduce good

harvesting practices and enhance seed processing capacities. Innovation grants and partner investments

provide five modern tractors with implements; two seed processing and packaging machines; 57 threshers

to introduce new threshing technologies and practices; and provide over 120 MT wheat seeds. One 1,100

MT capacity seed warehouse also addresses seed storage need.

Summary of innovation grant and partner investment under the wheat value chain.

- 5 tractors and agricultural implements

- 2 seed processing and packing machines

- 57 wheat threshers

- 1 seed warehouse 1,100 MT capacity

- 120 MT basic seeds

Maize Innovation Grants: To-date AGP-AMDe has issued 47 grants worth $1,308,027, including 6 new

grants during the quarter, to support innovative interventions in the maize value chain. Major maize value

chain grants are designed to address storage constraints across the value chain to meet market

requirements. These grants enable partners to meet volume and quality requirements by the WFP-P4P

program and other institutional buyers. Innovative maize grants also introduce 5 maize seed clearing and

packing machines for farmers’ cooperatives as well as establish one large flour mill plant in partnership

with private sector investor.

Summary of innovation grant and partner investment under the maize value chain.

- 7 maize washhouses (six 5,000 MT capacity warehouses and one 2,500 MT capacity warehouse)

- 5 seed cleaning and packing machines

- 1 large flour mill plant

- 1 tractor and agricultural implements


Access to Finance Innovation Grants: To-date AGP-AMDe has issued 3 grants worth $461,905 to

support innovative interventions to improve access to finance across the six value chain. Innovation grants

designed to improve access to finance introduce new technologies and mobile banking practices and

increase rural saving & credit mobilization, serving over 49,000 farmers. 24 SACCOOs also get capacity

building support through partnership with Cooperative Bank of Oromia.

Summary of innovation grant and partner investment to improve access to finance.

- 94 access-point-service equipment for mobile banking and improving access to rural finance

- Mobilize 54 million Birr saving serving 49,000 smallholder farmers

- 24 SACCOO rural finance support and capacity building

- 2 branch office in rural AGP-AMDe Woredas

- 1 SACCOO capacity building support to graduate it to rural bank (Embaba Haya)

Access to Inputs Innovation Grants (Fertilizer Blending): During the quarter, 5 grants worth

$2,089,335 were under implementation to support input supply market improvement and enhance

localized blending of fertilizers that will result in immediate national production advantages across multiple

value chains.

Summary of innovation grant and partner investment to introduce blended fertilizer technologies:

- One 50MT per hour capacity blended fertilizer factory established

- One warehouse to house the blended factory

- 5 blended fertilizer management contract to introduce new technology in blended fertilizer

manufacturing and marketing.

- 5,000,000 smallholder farmers to benefit annually from introduction of blended fertilizer

Grading and Post-Harvest Handling Equipment and Tools: To improve farmers cooperative’s capacity

to meet contract delivery requirements of the WFP P4P program, 15 grants provided new technologies

and better post harvesting practices through provision of 15 set of post-harvest handling equipment to 15

unions. Moreover, 39 innovation grants also provided unique and new grading and quality testing

equipment for 39 unions to enable them to improve their harvesting practices, and meet market quality

standards.

Summary of innovation grant and partner investment to introduce quality grading and harvesting

equipment and tools:

- 15 sets of post-harvest handling equipment and tools to support unions to meet maize quality

requirements by WFP-P4P program. The following equipment were provided to 15 unions:

o 31 fumigation sheets; 24 knapsack sprayer; 24 portable sack stitching machines; 16 grain

cleaner; and 16 maize shellers.

- 39 sets of quality testing and grading equipment and tools distributed to 39 unions

o 162 moister testers; 162 riffle sample splitter, 178 bag trier (sample drawer), 162 top load

balance (compact scales), 178 sieves & bottom pans

Grants to support Sale More for More Training: The SMFM training uses Training of Trainers (ToT)

approach to train a large number of farmers through cascading program. The ToT program directly trains

the lead farmers and the lead farmers, in turn, train a wider base of farmers at the farm gate level. A


cascade approach is the strategy identified to address this huge training need identified in AGP-AMDe

PMP, and FCUs and cooperatives facilitate cascading of the SMFM agricultural training to their cooperative

members.

This quarter AGP-AMDe trained 563 lead farmers and through cascading trained 15,242 farmers

Grants to Support Partnership with Public Sector Agricultural Research Centers

One of the major bottlenecks constraining productivity in the agricultural sector is lack of early generation

basic seeds. Ethiopia’s public research centers that produce basic seeds do not have the capacity and

resources to produce sufficient quantity and quality of basic seeds to meet the sector’s seed demand.

Among the bottle necks identified by AGP-AMDe are unavailability of irrigation equipment for multiyear

production and seed laboratory equipment to ensure quality of seeds produced. To alleviate such

constraints within the public sector agricultural research centers, AGP-AMDe provides innovation grants

worth USD 637,753 to provide irrigation and seed laboratory equipment to eleven agricultural centers.

Summary of innovation grant to support public sector agricultural research centers:

- Provide drip and sprinkler irrigation systems covering 24 hectares at the Kulumsa, Debre Zeit,

Humera and Jimma research centers which are centers of excellence for coffee, sesame, wheat,

chickpea value chains.

- Provide full set of quality testing equipment for seed laboratories at eleven research centers

(Kulumsa, Debre Zeit, Humera, Jimma, Sinana, Bako, Mekele, Hawassa, Areka, Adet and Gondar

research centers).

- Total annual basic seed production capacity of the centers will increase from 1,763 to 2,173

quintals across the five target value chains.


CROSS CUTTING ACTIVITIES

Summary of Capacity Building

Overview

AGP-AMDe project works to build the capacity of cooperatives in business and marketing. The project is

working with 19% of farmer cooperative unions operating in Ethiopia. These FCUs have more than 2554

affiliate primary cooperatives and more than 1.9 million member farmers. The project focus on sesame,

maize, honey, chick pea, wheat and coffee value chains and partner FCUs are working with the project in

one or two of these value chains.

The AGP-AMDe project delivered different training to cooperatives across the value chains and it applies

Sell More For More (SMFM) training as one of its major capacity building approaches to enhance

cooperatives performance. The approach consists of trainings on agriculture (post-harvest handling and

storage) and cooperative management (Leadership, business management, marketing and record keeping).

AGP-AMDe provides SMFM training directly to cooperatives and facilitates the cascade training effect

down to smallholder farmers. SMFM training sessions are delivered to cooperatives to address specific

needs identified through the M4 assessments and structured around critical activities implemented by

partners and delivered in line with seasonal farm operations. Sections below highlighted training and other

capacity building activities of the project delivered to cooperatives during the quarter.


Post-harvest handling

Post-harvest losses in Ethiopia are extensive. Improper harvesting and threshing techniques, poor

transportation and storage facilities result in losses of a considerable harvest. In addition to physical loss

of product, prices paid to the farmers are reduced due to discoloration, insect infestation and damaged

seeds. It is due to this reason that AMDe project engaged SMFM training to train farmers on specific post-

harvest skills in areas from harvesting to cleaning to storage and transportations that significantly

contribute to reduce losses.

The SMFM - PHH training use ToT approaches to reaches to large number of farmers through cascading

program. During the beginning of this quarter, the project has conducted 19 ToT technical training events

for 563 lead farmers gathered from 98 primary cooperatives of 27 cooperative unions. The ToT trainings

were given across all project value chains in all project regions. The achievement was 96% of the plan and

main reason for conducting these ToT trainings was to use the ToT participants (lead farmers) as a trainer

for cascade training program.


Summary of lead farmers’ ToT training accomplishment during the quarter

ValueChain

Target FCUs Target/Plan accomplishment# ofPCs

# of Leadfarmerstrained

# of PCs # of Leadfarmerstrained

%accomplish

edAmharaChick pea Ghion and Tsehaye 8 63 8 63 100Maize Damot,Merkeb,Admas 6 20 11 34 170Wheat Gozamin,Wedera 8 30 8

35117

Honey Zembaba 6 60 758

97

Sesame Selam, Metema 6 40 520

50

OromiaCoffee Buno

Bedelle,Sedenta,Arga4 29 4 21 72

Chick pea LumeAdama,Liben,Error

12 55 12 53 96

Maize Limu inerai 3 24 14 22 92Wheat Sekomando 8 20 8 18 90Honey 5 honey PCs 5 25 5 38 152Sesame Gebededessa 5 30 4 16 53SNNPRcoffee Yergachefie 4 20 4 32

160Wheat Melik 3 15 3 21 140

Edget 3 15 4 17 113TigrayWheat Bokra , Hashengie 6 40 8 64 160Sesame Dansha, Felege, Setit

Humera9 60 8 30 50

Honey 2 PCs 2 40 2 21 5327 FCUs 98

586115 563

96

More than 17, 600 member farmers of 31 FCUs were the targets during the reporting period to achieve

through cascade training and so far 15,242 farmers (36.4% female) are trained by trained lead farmers.

Training grant fund and training material (Posters and leaflets) production and distribution were part of

the quarter’s activities which result in distribution of more than 1000 USD training grant fund and 60,000

training materials for 70 primary cooperatives that are member of 31 FCUs. 7 honey cooperatives which

are not forming their secondary cooperative (union) have also received training support. This cascade

training program will also continue during the coming quarter. The detail cascade training activities is

presented below.


Grain grading equipment operation training: Practical training on use and operations of graingrading equipment was the other training activities during the quarter. The training was given to staff andleaders of 4 FCUs in Amhara region. As reported last quarter, the project provided 39 FCUs with graingrading equipment and the objective of introducing these innovative post-harvest technologies was toprovide Farmers’ Cooperative Union with the necessary technology to enable smallholder farmers toreduce post-harvest losses and increase their productivity.

Summary of cascade training achievement of the quarter

Summary of cascade training achievement of the quarter

ValueChain

TargetFCUs

# ofmemberPCs

# of targetbeneficiaries for the

quarter

Accomplishments

Number of beneficiaries%

accomplished

Women

beneficiaries(%)

M F Total PC

Male Female

Total

AmharaChickpea Gion,

Tsehaye8 1000 1000 2000 9 1005 985 1990 100 49.5

Maize Damot,Merkeb

4 280 280 560 8 279 87 366 65 23.8

Wheat Gozamin 4 300300

600 2 183 169 352 59 48.0

Honey Zembaba 6 1,200 1,200 2,400 3 1,350 1,116 2466 103 45.3Sesame Selam,

Metema6 800 800 1600 5 927 135 1062 66 12.7

TigrayWheat Bokra,Hash

engie6 600 600 1200 8 531 369 900 75 41.0

Sesame Dansha,Setithumera,Felege

6 800 800 1,600 8 1,150 138 1288 81 10.7

Honey 2 honeyPCs

2 400 400 800 2 528 292 820 103 35.6

SNNPRCoffee Yergachefie

, BenchiMaji,Kefa

12 900 900 1800 12 1516 756 2272 126 33.3

OromiaCoffee Buno

Bedelle,Arega

7 860 860 1,720 3 330 330 660 38 50.0

Chick pea Errer 4 360 360 720 4 418 289 707 98 40.9Maize Limu

inerai3 480 480 960 2 588 106 694 72 15.3

Honey 5 honeyPCs

5 500 500 1,000 5 569 456 1025 103 44.5

Sesame Gebededessa

4 320 320 640 4 320 320 640 100 50.0

Total 21 77 8,800 8,800 17,600 75 9,694 5,548 15,242 87 36.4


Cooperatives management: AGP-AMDe applies the SMFM management training to build the capacityof cooperative board members and staff in effective leadership practices, developing business plans,facilitating better operations management, marketing and keeping records. To enrich the effectiveness ofSMFM management training, the project prioritized SMFM management training delivery for FCUs andcooperatives that received project support through grant and access to market opportunities.Accordingly, in this quarter, SMFM management trainings were delivered to 34 primary cooperatives

which are members of 13 FCUs. 145 cooperative leaders and staff (12 females) participated in the trainings.

On average 4-5 primary cooperatives participated from each FCU in one training session aiming to

facilitate experience sharing among the cooperatives. These SMFM cooperatives management trainings are

given to selected cooperatives involved in local and international marketing activities through their FCUs.

Summary of cooperatives management training delivered during the quarter

RegionValueChain

FCUs

PlanAccomplishment

# ofPCS

# ofparticipa

nts# ofPCS

# of trainingbeneficiaries

%accomplish

edMal

eFema

leTotal

Amhara

Maize Damot 5 19 6 22 4 26 137%

WheatGozamin &Ghion

5 20 4 16 4 20 100%

Honey Zembaba 6 40 723 2

25 63%

Tigray SesameSetit humera,dansha felege

10 40 8 32 2 34 85%

SNNPRCoffee Yergachefie 4 20 4 21 0 21 105%

MaizeOysa Dawroand South Omo

5 20 5 19 0 19 95%

Total 13 35 159 34 133 12 145 91%


Gender

Overview

Women in Ethiopia make up more than 45% of the agricultural labor force, yet represent less than 20%

of members of agricultural cooperatives and have less access to productive resources and opportunities

than men. AGP-AMDe continues to view these gender gaps as essential to close in order to achieve

greater gender equality as well as increased productivity and food security.

AGP-AMDe’s vision for gender mainstreaming is that women, girls, men and boys equitably participate in,

contribute to and benefit from overall organizational policies, program management and day-to-day

operational practices with adequate recognitions and valuing of their contributions, and fair distribution

of the benefits. To achieve this vision the AGP-AMDe is mainstreaming gender equity across all program

components, in addition to ensuring that a targeted approach is employed, designating specific activities

and resources towards lessening the inequality between women and men. Recently, more extra effort has

been pulled together and a Women in Agribusiness Leadership program to empower women in

agribusiness sector is designed and under implementation.

AGP-AMDe supports the development and adoption of organizational systems and tools to identify and

address inequality, build public and private sector awareness and capacity, strengthen networks of

individuals and organizations promoting gender equity, create public awareness and target innovation

investments in areas of benefit to women. This strategy is implemented through three interwoven focuses:

- Targeted, strategic actions that are empowering women (individually and collectively) along the

value chains and across all components.

- Support and facilitation of mainstreaming efforts (internally and externally) to positively influence

institutional policy, systems and practices.

- Development of a women leadership network which includes capacity building in

entrepreneurship and leadership, formulating mentor-mentee relationships and linkages with

regional and international women’s networks.

Summary of Top results

Women in Agribusiness Leadership training fifth and sixth round trainings conducted in the four regions

(Oromia, SNNP, Tigray and Amhara) and Addis Ababa for 100 women business leadership training

participants with the main objective of facilitating learning on equipping participants to become good

mentor and launching the methorship program.

Women in Agribusiness Leadership network Mentoring program launched in the four regions (Oromia,

SNNPR, Tigray and Amhara) and Addis Ababa with objectives to;

- Introduce the WALN objectives, expected results and updates on current progress

- Officially launch the second phase of the project and increase the visibility of the mentor &

mentees working in Agribusiness in the region.

- Create Mentor and Mentee relationship.

- Share experience /knowledge acquired by the mentors during the training program


Innovative Business Plan Competitions among the 100 women in business leadership training participants

was conducted in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Addis Ababa both at regional and national level.

As a result, one woman winner from each regions selected and competed for the national competition

award. The Innovative Business Plan competition was held in the four regions and Addis Ababa participants

to enable participants in exercising and developing competitive business plans and ideas. Accordingly, more

than 50 women business leadership participants participated in the competition and five top scoring

business plans were selected from each region. The first winner of the Region’s (one from each Regions

– Addis Ababa, Oromia, SNNPR, Amhara and Tigray) were further competed for national prizes.


Women in Agribusiness Leadership Network (WALN) mentoring training and

Mentorship: This program is launched in Oromia, Amhara, SNNPR and Tigray Regions.

The Oromia region fifth round business leadership training on Mentoring skills and techniques was

conducted for three days at Adama town for 14 women mentors and WALN participants (one participant

absent) on November 11 – 13. The training achieved all the expected outputs and the participants also

gave their feedback as they have learned basic techniques and skills on mentorship.

After the three days mentorship training for the business leadership participants, a launching event was

conducted on November 14, 2014 inviting all the mentees and key stakeholders in the Region. There

were a total of 65 participants attended the launching event out of which only seveb men were

representatives from the government offices. Apart from the women mentors and mentees, the rest of

the representatives were from Oromia Agriculture Bureau, Oromia youth and women affairs, Oromia

Investment Bureau, Oromia trade Bureau, Oromia cooperative promotion agency, Adama Zone Chamber

of Commerce, Zonal Trade & Industry representative, Adama Zone youth and women affairs, Adama

zone Small and micro enterprise, The participants were given the opportunity for introduction and

familiarization of themselves with other fellow participants.

WALN Oromia Region Launching event participants

Site Visit: Site visit was also organized for Business Leadership participants for practical learnings from

fellow participants. The participants visited one of the members association who produce Enjera to

the local market including Hospitals, Hotels and groceries. The participants got key learnings from the

success of the business on small technologies facilitate the business, bookkeeping and financial

management and also Human resource managements.


Oromia WALN team visit to Women owned enjera baking factory in Adama town

Similarly, the fifth round business leadership training on mentoring skills and techniques was conducted

for WALN participants & Mentors in Amhara Region. The training was conducted during November 17

– 20 at Bahirdar town.

The Mentorship program was successfully launched on November 19 parallel with the training. Where

around 130 participants (110 women and 20 men) attended. An honorary guest and Inspirational women

leader – Wz. Mulu Solomon (former President of Ethiopian Chambers of Commerce and a pioneer women

entrepreneur) made a remarkable speech on the event. This has motivated the participants and

appreciated by all the participants. Mrs. Vanessa Adams, AGP AMDe COP has also made a remarkable

opening speech by welcoming all participants, especially women mentors and their mentees for their

commitment to take part in the Mentorship program. Finally, the mentorship program was officially

launched by the President of Amhara Women Entrepreneurs Association Wz. Nigist.

Amhara Region WALN mentorship program launch event participants

In Tigray Region on the similar topic on Mentorship, the training was conducted during November 17 –

19 for 24 women mentors in Mekelle town. The contents covered on the training was to enable them to

acquire skills and tools on the upcoming mentorship program to be launched and implemented by the

participants for the coming 6 months. After the training women mentors has been given a mentorship

guideline/hand book prepared by WALN to facilitate the mentorship process.


WALN Tigray Region Business Leadership participants on mentoring training session

Mentorship program launch: The launching program was held at Axum hotel Mekelle on the 20th

November 2014. There were 105 participants of which 99 women mentors and mentees, the rest

from different government sectors, women associations, and women entrepreneurs.

During the event, overall progress and achievement of the WALN program was presented by the

regional AGP-AMDe WALN team. Women participants of the program also shared their opinion of

their gain from the training programs as well as the support they acquired from the program to

improve their business.

Tigray Region WALN Mentorship launching event participants

Guest Speaker Alena Garandi: Alena is one of the most successful woman entrepreneur in the Tigray

region. She was invited on the event to come and share success experience to inspire WALN

participants. She has shared her experience on how motivated to start and run the drip irrigated

farming on 50 hectares of land. Currently, she is running 18million ETB capital investment on

producing different fruits, vegetables and pulses for local markets and supplying to the Ethiopian

Commodity Exchange. She is also in the process of identifying international markets for her produces.

The WALN participants of the conference were highly inspired by Alena’s experience and her

enthusiasm for growing her business.


The mentorship training and launching event was also conducted in SNNPR, Butajira town from December

1 – 4, 2014. The training and mentoring launch carried out from December 1 -3 December 2014.

Seventeen women mentors participated on the 3 days training (December 1 -3/2014) and trained on

mentorship & coaching as well as the application of Mentor Hand book. With this, the mentors become

well equipped and motivated to begin the mentor/mentee relationship and provide support to their

mentees by using the mentors hand book as their guidance throughout the mentorship period.

SNNPR WALN business leadership training participants

Mentorship Launch on December 4, 2014 at Butajira. More than 65 mentors/mentees and 5 (two men) from

governments offices and associations were present on the mentoring launch event. Apart from having

brief opening remarks made by the AMDe COP, Regional WALN team and government officials; Ethiopian

Women Entrepreneur Association president and member of WALN network also made a motivation

speech. She said, women who are engaged in businesses need to be organized and create network to

overcome challenges and to use this initiative (WALN) as a good opportunity to shine and make history

in their community and country.

SNNPR WALN Mentoring Launch event participants

During the launch event three mentors shared their experience and lesson learned from the WALNBusiness Leadership Training. The participants appreciated what they have learned to improve theirbusiness through the training sessions as well as the experience visits and guest speakers invited duringthe training sessions. In addition, the experience they have shared among each other was another greateropportunity for their personal development as well as their business.


During the event, the business plan competition made with the participant results were announced andthree top scoring women was awarded by AGP-AMDe Chief of Party Ms. Vanessa Adams andrepresentatives from SNNPR Women, Children & Youth Affairs and Regional Bureau of Trade.

SNNPR WALN Business Plan Competition winners’ award

WALN fourth round training for Addis Ababa participants was conducted during December 3 – 5, in

Addis Ababa. Ten women WALN business leadership participants have attended the training. The training

session covers the topics; Leadership basic concepts, leadership styles, factors affecting leadership styles,

leadership and team building, and gender and leadership. The training was facilitated in participatory way.

The participants have given feedbacks on the training and majority of them have rated the training was

‘Excellent” and helpful to run their business successfully.

Addis Ababa WALN participants on training session

WALN mentorship training and launch conducted during December 29 – 31, 2014 in Addis Ababa Radison Blue

Hotel. On the launching event more than 30 women participants attended the launching event and the mentor –

mentee sessions. Women mentors, who attended the 5th round training on business leadership shared their success

stories with regard to how the training and experience shared among each other helped them to develop their

business and personal developments.


Addis Ababa Mentorship Program Launch event participants

WALN Mentors Handbook developed and printed: The handbook was developed to support thementorship program for the women mentors. The handbook is prepared in English and translated toAmharic for the mentor reference. The handbook covers basic concepts about mentorship and also toolsand checklists for mentoring on business development. The handbook was distributed to all theparticipants during the training and in preparation of the mentorship program.

WALN Mentors Handbook – Amharic & English Copies


Gender Key Events Undertaken, October – December 2014

Name ofEvent

Event Type DateLocation (city,Woreda,region/country)

ValueChain/CrossCuttingArea

Male Female TotalName(s) of AMDe TeamAttending

WALN TOT Regional WALNTeam Refresher TOT

October 1-3/2014

Addis Ababa WALN 13 7 20 Gender Team

WALN 4th

round trainingBusiness LeadershipTraining

October 6-8/2014

Mekele - Tigray WALN - 24 24 Atikilty Ambachew , Berhan Dargi &Hebret Abahoy

WALN 4th


October 20-22/2014

Hawassa - SNNPR WALN - 19 19 Amheyesye W/micheal, EtaferahuAlemayehu & Hebret Abahoy

WALN 4th


October 8-10/2014

Bahir Dar-Amhara WALN - 23 23 Melat Lemma, Meskerem & Behongn

WALN 4th


October 13-15/2014

Bishofto -Oromia WALN 15 15 Kassahun Gemeda , SamsonShiferaw , Mesay Aynetaw

WALN 4th


December 3-5/2014

Addis Ababa WALN - 10 10 Mesay Aynetaw & Rahel Tessema

WALN 5th


November 11-13/2014

Adama- Oromia - WALN - 14 14 Kassahun Gemeda , SamsonShiferaw , Mesay Aynetaw

WALNmentoringLaunch

Mentorship Launch November14/2014

Adama - Oromia WALN 7 58 65 Kassahun Gemeda , SamsonShiferaw , Mesay Aynetaw & HebretAbahoy

WALN 5th


November 17 –19/2014

Mekele -Tigray WALN - 24 24 Atikilty Ambachew, Assefa , Leake,Berhan Dargi , Fikre & HebretAbahoy

WALNmentoringlaunch

Mentoring Launch November20/2014

Mekel -Tigraye WALN 6 99 105 Atikilty Ambachew, Assefa , Leake,Berhan Dargi , Fikre & HebretAbahoy

WALN 5th


November -17,18 & 20/2014

Bahir Dar -Amhara WALN 23 23 Melat Lemma, Meskerem & Behongn


Name ofEvent

Event Type DateLocation (city,Woreda,region/country)

ValueChain/CrossCuttingArea

Male Female TotalName(s) of AMDe TeamAttending

WALNmentoringlaunch

Mentoring Launch November19/2014

Bahir Dar -Amhara WALN 20 110 130 Vanessa Adams, Teferi Wondale,Rahel Tessema , Melat Lemma,Meskerem & Behongn

WALN 5th


December 1-2/2014

Butajira -SNNPR - WALN - 17 17 Getachew Asmare, Abiot Imiru,Alemayehu Tilahun , AmheyesusW/micheal & Hebret Abahoy

WALNmentoringlaunch

Mentoring launch December3/2014

Butajira -SNNPR - WALN 2 63 65 Vanessa Adams , Berhanu Asfaw,Getachew Asmare, Abiot Imiru,Alemayehu Tilahun , AmheyesusW/micheal & Hebret Abahoy

WALN 6th


December 23-25/2014

Axum -Tigray WALN - 25 25 Atikilty Ambachew, , Leake, BerhanDargi , & Rahel Tessema

WALN 6th


December 23-25/2014

Gondar -Amhara WALN - 20 20 Melat Lemma , Meskerem &Behonign

WALN 6th

roundBusiness LeadershipTraining

December 25-27/2014

Adama -Oromia WALN - 14 14 Kassahun Gemeda, Mesay Aynetaw ,Samason Shiferaw & Hebret Abahoy

WALN 6th


December 29-31/2014

Hawassa -SNNPR WALN - 20 20 Etaferahu Alemayehu & AlemayehuTilahun

WALN 5th


December 29 -30/2014

Addis Ababa WALN - 10 10 Hebret Abahoy, Mesay Aynetaw

WALNmentoringLaunch

Mentoring Launch December31/2014

Addis Ababa WALN 1 30 31 Vanessa Adams, Rahel Tessema,Mesay Aynetaw & Hebret Abahoy


Nutrition

Overview

Malnutrition is pervasive in Ethiopia, and maternal and child malnutrition is severe. Limited access to foods,

economic and cultural constraints, and lack of nutritional knowledge and information are critical factors

that limit rural Ethiopians’ access to adequate nutritious foods. Improved nutritional status of the citizens

is currently considered by the Ethiopian government both as input and outcome of national socio-

economic development. The country is implementing a multispectral nutrition program aligned with the

National Growth & Transformation Plan and Millennium Development Goals. Nutrition sensitive

programming is given special emphasis in the revised national nutrition program, and agriculture is best

placed to address malnutrition contextually and at scale.

Agriculture programs can improve nutrition through different impact pathways such as increased food

production for home consumption, increased household income, and increased access of nutritious foods

and reduced food price, and women empowerment.

Beneficiaries of AGP-AMDe project almost entirely depend on agriculture for their food and livelihoods.

Integrating nutrition in the value chain based agricultural development will enhance the nutritional impact

of the programs. Increases in production through better inputs, introduction of new technologies for food

preservation and storage, and increased income from sales of agriculture products can provide year round

food access at the household level including the lean seasons. When coupled with nutrition education and

budgeting for food purchases all these can improve nutrition and food security.

The nutrition component of AGP-AMDe project is designed to fit in to the agriculture nutrition impact

pathways and emphasizes on maximizing production and consumption of adequate nutritious food,

ensuring the quality of foods, investing income for nutritious foods, and women empowerment. The

nutrition activity is integrated in to the value chains to promote production and consumption of adequate

nutritious foods among the smallholder farmers. In collaboration with agriculture offices and farmers’

cooperative unions (FCUs) nutrition education and behavior change communication activities will be

implemented to reach 57,000 smallholder farmers.


AGP-AMDe trained 578 participants (296 female) on nutrition sensitive agriculture and dietary diversity

material. Participants included 122 lead farmers, 476 smallholder farmers, and 63 cooperative managers.

A refresher meeting was also held with 83 home economics agents (HEAs) to continue the previously

started cascading training.



ToT on Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture for Lead Farmers: The ToT on nutrition sensitive

agriculture for 122 lead farmers (26 females) selected from different Woredas of Amhara and Oromia

regions was conducted using the AGP-AMDe SMFM nutrition training technical guide. The main topics

covered were: Introduction to Nutrition; Crop Diversity/Diet Diversity; Crop Growth/Human Growth;

and Crop Health/Human Health. The lead farmer trainings were organized in collaboration with woreda

agriculture offices and FCUs and facilitated by the previously trained HEA. Upon completion, each lead

farmer was provided with two sets of material in their local language to be used in cascading the training.

Each of the trained lead farmers is expected to cascade the training to 50-60 farmers selected from primary

cooperative unions.

Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Cascade Training: The previously trained development agents in

Raya Alamata Woreda of Tigray in collaboration with the woreda agriculture office, cascaded the nutrition

sensitive agriculture training to 476 farmer (263 females), using the SMFM nutrition training technical guide

and material. The training was carried out in the FCU’s of Raya Alamata Woreda.

Nutrition Training of Farmers’ Cooperative Unions: During the reporting period, 63 (7 females)

FCU managers and agriculture office heads from Amhara and Tigray were trained on basic nutrition and

nutrition sensitive agricultural interventions. The objective of the training was to give them the tools to

support and implement household dietary diversity strategies. The Farmers’ Cooperatives Unions are

tasked with organizing the training, selecting lead farmers, and providing material.

Home Economics Agents Refresher Meeting: A one day refresher training was conducted targeting

83 home economics agents trained as trainers for the nutrition sensitive agriculture training. The refresher

training was intended to sensitize the HEAs on nutrition activities and implementation strategies and

discuss the challenges and lessons in cascading the training to farmers. HEAs will train lead farmers instead

of district agents, a strategy that has proved effective in behavior change and sustainable.

Cookbook Revision, Translation, and Printing: The cookbook is being revised and translated into

Amharic and will be printed in the next quarter.

Nutrition STICKS (Posters) Revision and Printing: To complement the nutrition facilitator’s and

technical training guides the project developed nutritional material (known as STICKS) that promote

nutritional messaging. The original material is being revised for graphic content and translated to local

languages. The material is expected to be printed by next quarter.

Analysis of Nutrition Activities

Opportunities

- Establish a multi-sector, national nutrition program coordinating body at the woreda level, especiallyin Amhara and Tigray, which will promote and support the implementation of nutrition activities.


- Smallholder farmers gain more and more access to irrigation schemes that can increase sustainableaccess to diversified food crops.

- Nutrition education and behavior change communication can be integrated into the value chains.

Challenges

- Budget constraints: a small budget has been allocated for nutrition.- The predefined and tight schedule of the woreda agriculture offices and farmers make planning difficult.- There is a general low level of nutritional knowledge and awareness among regional and woreda level

partners.- Lack of vegetable and fruit seeds for home gardening.- No nutrition specialist assigned for Oromia and Tigray.


Nutrition: Key Events Undertaken, October - December 2014

Name of Event Date EventType

Location Total Male Female


HEAs RefresherMeeting

Nov. 07 Meeting Bahir Dar 25 19 6 Woreda Agricultureoffice


Dec. 12 Meeting Adama 30 20 10 Woreda Agricultureoffice


Dec. 18 Meeting Wukro 14 8 6 Woreda agricultureoffice


De. 22 Meeting Hawassa 14 6 8 Woreda Agricultureoffice

FCUs Nutrition BasicsTraining

Dec. 28-29 Training Bahir Dar 19 15 4 Woreda Agricultureoffice


Dec. 01-02 Training Finote-Selam

21 19 2 Woreda Agricultureoffice


Dec. 19-20 Training Wukro 23 22 1 Woreda Agricultureoffice

Lead Farmers Training(ToT) on nutritionsensitive agriculture

Dec. 18-19 Training Enemaye 12 12 0 Woreda Agricultureoffice


Dec. 29-30 Training Bekoji/Shirka and LimuBilbileWoredas



Dec. 30-31 Training Dodola/Kofele, Dodola& AdabaWoredas



Dec. 31 -Jan. 01 Training Sinana/Robe 12 7 5 Woreda Agricultureoffice


Dec. 03-04 Training Gudar/Ambo & TokeKutayeWoredas


Lead Farmers Trainingon nutrition sensitiveagriculture

Dec. 06-07 Training Woliso 20 17 3 Woreda Agricultureoffice

Nutrition: Partners and Intervention, October - December 2014


Interventions during the quarter Explain observed majorresults

Woreda agricultureoffices

Amhara, Oromia,SNNPR, Tigray

Nutrition sensitive agriculture TOT training forlead farmers, farmersHEAs refresher meeting

Successful coordination andintegration in organizing andconducting trainings

Farmers’ CooperativesUnions

Amhara and Tigray Nutrition Basics Training Successful coordination andintegration in conducting trainings


Nutrition: Activity Tracker (Gantt chart), October - December 2014

ActivityDescription

Indicator andUnit

Y4Target

This Quarter Cumulative Q 1 + Q 2Reason forVariance

TargetAchieved

TargetAchieved

Number % Number %

Nutrition training materials developed

Duplicate/Translateinto local languagesand distributetechnical modulesfor trainers

# of manualsduplicated/translated

200 120 120 100 120 120 100

Re-print anddistribute nutritionSTICKS for farmertraining

# of STICKSreprinted

750 750 - - 750 - Procurementprocesstakes longertime. Fartheredition wasdone

Conduct nutritionbasics training forUnion staff

# TOT trained 165 165 63 38 165 63 100 Oromia andSNNPRpostponed

Conduct HEAsrefresher meeting

No. of participants 92 92 83 90 92 83 100

Conduct TOT forDAs/lead farmerson nutritionsensitiveagriculture

# TOT trained 660 220 112 51 220 112 100 SSNNPR andTigrayregiondelayed

Conduct farmersnutrition trainingscoordinated withvalue chains

# of farmers trained 37,000 476 476 100 476 476 100

IEC/BCC material developed and nutritionBCC promoted among beneficiariesDevelop & printcookbook withrecipes from eachof the 6 crops

# of cookbooksdeveloped

1 1 1 100 1 1 100

Conduct cookingdemonstrationsusing cookbook atfarmer field days

# of cookingdemonstrations and# of farmersparticipating

40 - --

- - -

Develop video ofcookingdemonstrations forfarmer’shouseholds

# of farmers viewingvideo

24,000 - - - 24,000 - - To bedefined byBCC team

Develop anddistribute BCCmaterials likeLeaflets, posterswith nutritionmessages to FCU’s(see BCC)

# of materialsdeveloped

- --

- --

To bedefined byBCC team

SupportiveSupervision and


ActivityDescription

Indicator andUnit

Y4Target

This Quarter Cumulative Q 1 + Q 2Reason forVariance

TargetAchieved

TargetAchieved

Number % Number %

Monitoring visitsConducted

ConductSupportiveSupervision Visitsfor regions

# of visitsconducted toregions

12 4 --

6 2 50 Timeconstraint-Busy in-office works

Conduct followup/MonitoringVisits toWoreda/Kebele

# of visitsconducted toWoredas

55 12 - - 12 - - Timeconstraint-Busy inGendertrainings


Behavior Change Communications (BCC)

Overview

AGP-AMDe aims to promote the utilization of improved seeds and fertilizers as well as more inclusion

of women in cooperatives and FCUs, as well as nutrition. To achieve this, part of the strategy leverages

printed communication materials like posters, fliers and pocket guides.

AGP-AMDe implements behavior change communications campaigns to support main project activities

thorugh BCC camapings on gender equity, inputs promotion and nutrition. These campaigns include

the promotion of inputs to increase agricultural productivity, promoting the inclusion of more women

members in agricultural cooperatives and promoting the consumption of more nutritious foods by

smallholder farmers in the four AGP regions. During this quarter, the focus has been gender and

nutrition campaigns.


Since a March 2014 baseline, the Regional Cooperative Promotion Bureaus (RCPBs) have reported

that a total of about 78, 869 new women have joined primary cooperatives across the four regional

states. From these reported numbers, AGP-AMDe has collected over 41,500 names of newly

registered women and this number is increasing every week. The names are being collected form over

1,500 participating PCs in collaboration with regional cooperative bureaus.

Promoting gender equity and the inclusion of more women in agricultural cooperatives as well aspromoting the use of improved seeds with fertilizers to increase productivity, AGP-AMDe hasdistributed over 22,700 print materials targeting FCU and PC management members, and male andfemale famers. From the total print materials distributed, 8,500 materials were for input campaign andthe remaining 14,200 materials were for the gender campaign.


Gender: Aiming to facilitate the inclusion of over 10,000 new women by AGP-AMDe's partner

FCUs and PCs, the project has been promoting gender equity and a new women member registration

competition from March 2014 until December 2015. Federal and regional cooperative promotion

bureaus have been leading and coordinating this campaign in collaboration with the project. AMDe has

been distributing various behavior change communication (BCC) materials to male and female farmers’

as well as FCUs and PC management staff at general assembly meetings, FCU and PC offices, Kebele

and Wereda government offices ad meeting halls, high-traffic rural market places, project trainings and

other FCU-led events. The women inclusion in agricultural cooperatives campaign, which began in

March 2014 and ended December 2015, has involved AMDe's 50 partner FCUs and over 2000 of their

member PCs. The campaign aims to push women membership to minimum 30% among participating

FCUs as per the Federal Government of Ethiopia’s target.

Within this quarter a total of 6,804 posters and leaflets promoting the benefits of women inclusion in

cooperative were distributed directly to union as well as primary cooperative management members

at meetings, trainings and various events. A total of 7,419 posters ad fliers promoting the benefits of

women inclusion in cooperatives as well as promoting the new women member registration

competition and the rewards were distributed directly to women and men farmers through Godjos

at market places, and directly by FCUs and primary cooperatives management members, as a

continuation of the campaign that has already been launched before this quarter.


Gender Campaign Women Membership Status

Increase in Number of Women Members at FCUs from March - December 2014.

In addition, the winners of the new women members’ registration competition were identified from

each region. These are:

Amhara: Damot FCU, Shindi zuria PC; Admas FCU, Ahti PC; Woderra FCU, Saset PC: and

Wodera FCU, Sela dingay PC;

Oromia: Haragu FCU, Gemechu Kebena PC; Harugu FCU, Alemgena PC; Robi Berga FCU,

Deka Bora PC; Robi Berga FCU, Arertu PCs;

SNNPR: Melik FCU, Meded bodity PC; Yem Tebaber FCU, Derri PC; Yem Tebaber PC, Saja

PC and Meli FCU, Torra Aratu PCs;

Tigray: Bokra Union Shimta PC; Tekeze Union, Musie PC; Bokra Union Betlhem PC; Bokra

FCU, Sebhiwed Baela PC.

The winning Primary Cooperatives are scheduled to receive their awards: hand-pushed tractor and

off-road motorcycle in a conference organized from January 21-22, 2015 at Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel.

The national winning union that will exhibit its product in an international fair is identified as Yem

Tebaber FCU from Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Regional State (SNNPR).

A film highlighting the objectives and achievements of the incentives–based women inclusion at

farmers’ cooperative campaign was produced. The film is submitted to USAID and will be shown at

the at the Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel event on January 21 2015.

Inputs: AGP-AMDe in collaboration with Federal and Regional Agriculture offices has been

implementing the Inputs promotion campaign in the four regions. The purpose of this campaign is to

promote the use of maize, wheat, chickpea and sesame improved seeds with the new blended

fertilizers to small holder famers through FCUs and PCs. Content was developed at Federal Ministry

of Agriculture level with support from the AGP-made. The materials were also presented to Regional

Agriculture Bureaus and approved before distribution. In geographic location where the blended

fertilizers were not distributed, the campaign messages were tuned in to focus only on promoting the

use of improved seeds with fertilizers instead of mentioning the blended one. The promotion builds

57,522 97,75922,668

33,03860,303

113,934

35,734

43,782

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Oromiya Amhara SNNPR Tigray

Before Campaign

After Campaign


on the Federal Government’s plans to develop fertilizer production facilities where targeted blending

can take place.

This quarter, a total of 8, 505 print materials were distributed directly to smallholder farmers, FCUs,

and Cooperatives at rural market places, trainings, meetings and events in the four regions. These

print materials constitute 6,520 fertilizer application pocket guides, 76 maize posters, 194 wheat

posters, 165 wheat flier, 500 chickpea posters, 784 chickpea fliers, 266 sesame posters.

AMDe also sets up Godjos (portable and branded tents) at high traffic rural markets to disseminate

BCC materials directly to farmers. These markets are selected by FCU and PCs. The Godjos are

branded with “Fruitful Life” logos, an overarching theme for all made’s BCC campaigns. In addition to,

Fruitful Life logo, appropriate Ethiopian Government (MoA) and donor (USAID) logos were also put

on the tents. Set up at market places, general assembly meetings of FCUs and PCs, trainings and events,

coffee ceremonies are used to attract the attention of farmers to pass through the Godjos where they

are given materials on inputs and gender campaigns as well as given brief description about the

messages on the materials for those who can’t read.

Nutrition: AGP-AMDe is launching ‘nutrition through visual tools’ campaign that will benefit more

than 14,000 farmers in Amhara and Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ State (SNNPS). The

campaign aims to inform cooperative members how to improve their diets to be more productive.

Working with the nutrition specialist in the project, four Weredas were identified in Amhara and

SNNPS. South Achefer Wereda (Merkeb FCU) and Dangla Wereda (Admas FCU) have been identified

from Amhara and Wendogenet Wereda (Sidama Elto FCU) and Misrak Azernet (Melik FCU) has been

identified from SNNP. These weredas were selected based on available nutrition need data, potential

for change, accessibility and cooperation of Wereda agriculture and health bureaus. Through this

campaign 300 persons from FCUs, PCs, Wereda Agriculture and Health Offices would benefit from

capacity building trainings.

Using visual tools such as portable projectors and battery powered speakers, films produced by FCUs,

Wereda agriculture and health bureaus will be shown to farmers repeatedly until they understand and

adapt the behaviors. The films will be focusing on contents that include preparation and consumption

of recipes from AMDe’s VCs, benefits of diet diversity and the advantages of consuming high calorie

foods to be more productive. Training on film production and dissemination will be conducted in

January 2015. To supplement the visual tools, a nutrition brochure has been drafted and made ready

for print. The brochure aims to inform farmers how to produce nutritious foods on their farms and

from animal breeding as well as the importance of saving to buy nutrition-rich foods to give technical

support and intensive training.


UPCOMING EVENTS (JANUARY – MARCH 2015)

Date Name of Event LocationSector/ValueChain

Responsible Staff

Jan. 2015 Wheat threshing Field days Moretna Jiru Wheat Fentahun

Jan. 2015 Taste of Harvest (ToH) Competition Addis Ababa Coffee Bisrat Ermias

Jan. 2015 Field Inspection of seed demos androlling grant seed multiplications

Woredas ofwhich Tsehay,Ghion andWodera FCUsencompasses

Chickpea Amhara Region –AGPAMDe

Jan. 2015 SMFM Management Training for PCleaders

Wodera &kesem FCUs


Jan. 11-14, 20-15 MoA capacity strengthening on primarymarketing, quality coffee, seedlingproduction and other good agriculturalpractices

Dilla Coffee SNNPR Coffee valuechain specialist

Jan. 16, 2015 PHH equipment operation training Hawassa Maize Alemayehu Tilahun

Jan. 21-22, 2015 WALN National Conference Addis Ababa Gender WALN Team

Jan. 25-30, 2015 SMFM management training (genderfocused leadership, record keeping,business planning and marketing)

Mizan Coffee SNNPR Coffee valuechain specialist

Jan. 29, 2015 Local Bayer’s and processer visit toChickpea FCUs/Market linkage/

Modjo,Debrezeit andwaliso

Chickpea National Chickpea VCand Regional Field VCspecialist

Feb. 2015 Follow up PHH TOT and CascadingTraining

Markos andDebreberhan

Wheat Fentahun

Feb. 2, 2015 MSP Workshop Shashemene Wheat Desalegn, Zewdu

Feb. 2, 2015 Follow upping of seed and graincollection

Woredas ofwhich Tsehay,Ghion, Merkeb,Kesem andWodera FCUsencompasses


Feb. 4-5, 2015 Market linkage of wheat producerFCUs (Robi Berga, Liben, Haragu,Chefe Buluki) with Ambo flour factory

Ambo Wheat Desalgn, Girma,Zewdu

Feb. 6-7, 2015 Market linkage of Galema, AgarfaKajawa S/Mando with Lume Adama

Adama Wheat Desalgn, Girma,Zewdu

Feb. 8-12, 2015 Gulfood Dubai, UAE Coffee Bisrat Ermias


Date Name of Event LocationSector/ValueChain

Responsible Staff

Feb. 8-12. 2015 Gulf trade Show Dubai Chickpea Lume Adama FCU –sposnored byACDI/VOCA

Feb. 9-15, 2015 SMFM management training (genderfocused leadership, record keeping,business planning and marketing)

Jimma Coffee Oromia Coffee VCSpecialist

Feb. 12-13, 2015 AFCA Nairobi, Kenya Coffee Bisrat Ermias

Feb. 19, 2015 AMSAP Awareness creation workshopfor zonal & woredas Officials

Welkitie Maize

Feb. 19, 2015 Multi-stakeholder meeting Nazreat Chickpea National Chickpea VCand Regional Field VCspecialist

Feb 20-22,2015 SMFM management training (genderfocused leadership, record keeping,business planning and marketing)

Dilla and Awassa Coffee SNNPR Coffee valuechain specialist

Feb. 2015 Multi stake holder platform meeting Yirgalem Wheat Amhayesus W/Michael,Zewdu

Feb. 2015 SMFM management training Butajira Wheat Amhayesus W/Michael

Feb. 2015 WALN 6the round Addis Ababatraining

Addis Ababa Gender WALN Team

Mar. 10, 2015 Multi-stakeholder meeting Gondar/Bahirdar Chickpea National Chickpea VCand Regional Field VCspecialist

March 5-7, 2015 MoA capacity strengthening onprimary marketing, quality coffee,seedling production and other goodagricultural practices


March 9-15,2015

SMFM management training (genderfocused leadership, record keeping,business planning and marketing)

Jimma Coffee Oromia Coffee VCSpecialist

Mar. 10, 2015 Export market training Debrezeit Chickpea National Chickpea VCand Regional Field VCspecialist

March 25-30,2015

Conduct SMFM management training(gender focused leadership, recordkeeping, business planning andmarketing) to cooperative leaders andstaff



ANNEXES (SEPARATE VOLUME)

List of Annexes (October – December 2014)

Annex 1. International Trip Reports

Annex 2. Draft - Fertilizer Manufacturing and Trade Proclamation

Annex 3. Draft - Establishment of The National Fertilizer Industry Agency Proclamation

Annex 4. Fairtrade Certificate: Zenbaba Bee Products Development and Marketing Cooperatives

Union

Annex 5. WFP-ATA-CBEE MoU on Output Financing to Support Smallholder Farming in Ethiopia

agriculture growth program – agribusiness and market … · 2019. 4. 24. · agp-amde partnered...

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