Overview of the ATA and Priorities in the Soils Program Sam Gameda Managing Living Soils Dec 5-7, 2012, Global Soil Partnership, FAO, Rome

Content

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Overview of ATA and the Soils program

Overview of the Ethiopian soil sector

Priorities and Challenges

The creation of the ATA is the result of a process that lasted nearly two years

Jan ‘09 Sep ‘09 Aug ‘10 Oct ‘10 Dec ‘10 Aug ‘11

Prime Minster Meles meets with Melinda Gates and requests

review of Ethiopia’s agriculture extension systems.

Recommendation of extension diagnostic endorsed by PM. PM requests support for additional

diagnostics in seeds, soils, irrigation, agricultural finance and key value

chains

Seven Diagnostics and integrated report submitted to

Prime Minister.

Council of Ministers pass federal regulation establishing

Agriculture Transformation Agency

Government decision to create an independent

organization modeled after Taiwan and Korean “acceleration units”

First Board meeting with Prime Minister and Transformation

Council

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Public sector • Federal partners • Regional partners

Civil society • Local / intl. NGOs • Local/intl. Research &

academia

Private sector • Inputs, outputs and service providers

Dev’t Partners

• RED-FS

• Multi / bilaterals, foundations

Ministry of Agriculture

• Strengthen the Ministry of Agriculture as the ATA’s primary partner

• Identify and strengthen the institutional capacity of partner organizations

• Align objectives with national targets for poverty reduction, food security and growth

• Ensure a strong and equitable regional focus in strategies and implementation support

• Act as a high performance change agent defined by strong analytics and stakeholder engagement

• Seek scalable solutions with tangible improvement in productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers

• Ensure an integrated approach to gender and the environment across all work areas

ATA’s principles ATA’s partners

ATA fits within a set of complex partnerships

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Integrated approach to the work

Summary points

• Focus on systems change but must be grounded and benefit specific crops that are important to Ethiopia’s farmers

• Integrated approach will facilitate integration and coordination to achieve sectoral transformation

• Prioritized focus areas to ensure long term effectiveness and achieve sustainable results

• Key issues such as Gender and Technology Access & Adoption must inform, influence and catalyze all program activities

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Content

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Overview of ATA and the Soils program

Overview of the Ethiopian soil sector

Priorities and Challenges

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Type Partner Name Role

Federal

Ministry of Agriculture Over all guidance, planning monitoring, evaluation and technical support

Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and affiliated research centers

National Soil Testing Centre

Regional

Regional Bureaus of Agriculture (RBoAs) Planning, monitoring, implementing and evaluation in the respective regions

Regional Agricultural Research Institutes (RARIs)

Regional Soil Testing Labs (RSTLs)

Higher Learning Institutions

Different Ag- centric universities Research support and supply of human resources

Dev. partners

IFPRI Studies on key topics (e.g., fertilizer value chain improvement)

ILRI/IWMI Research on soil and water resource management

AGP Financing inputs

IFDC/AFAP Fertilizer blending plant consultancy

Other private sector Potential implementation partners

Soil sector stakeholders and roles

There are various stakeholders related to the soils sector in Ethiopia

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There are two major types of bottlenecks related to improving soil health and fertility in Ethiopia: soil-level and systemic

SOURCE: Team analysis

Soil-level bottlenecks

Systemic bottlenecks

Bottleneck to achieve soil health

and fertility in Ethiopia

Description

There are major physical, chemical and biological issues in the current Ethiopian soils against health and fertility that need to be addressed

Apart from the soil itself, there are also bottlenecks in the system (e.g., knowledge management, policy support) that requires interventions for resolution

Physical Chemical Biological

SOURCE: ATA, Expert Input

The soil-level bottlenecks have different levels of negative impact on the physical, chemical, and biological condition of soil health and soil fertility

Organic matter depletion

Soil erosion

Salinity/sodicity

Waterlogging

Physical land degradation

Acidity

Nutrient depletion

Soil-level bottlenecks

Limited biomass coverage

Low moisture availability

Negative impact to soil health

Overall

Higher negative impact

Negative impact to soil fertility

Soil fauna/flora depletion

Soil compaction

Direct influence with high magnitude of impact Direct influence with medium magnitude of impact

Direct influence with low magnitude of impact

Relative magnitude of impact

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The systemic bottlenecks can be grouped into five categories, from information management to organization and management systems

1 Soil information management Lack of up-to-date information on soil fertility No shared soil information database

3 Input value chain Limited accessibility/affordability to inputs (e.g., fertilizer, soil amendments) Inefficiency in distribution and marketing of fertilizers Other inefficiencies in the value chain Limited financial support to farmers’ adoption of practices

2 Technology generation and dissemination, and linkage Lack of soil test-based fertilizer recommendations Lack of soil fertility and health management technology registry and release mechanism Low emphasis to soil fertility focused extension system Limited research emphasis on soil health and fertility Limited lab capabilities and capacity Inadequate use of, and inappropriate management for, irrigation Limited coordination between research, extension, and academia

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Strategic and regulatory framework Limited quality control mechanisms and regulatory system for inputs Lack of proper agricultural land use management strategy and implementation

5 Organization and management systems Absence of an

independent national soil research institute

Lack of coordination among research institutions

Limited coordination among soil laboratories

SOURCE: ATA

Content

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Overview of ATA and the Soils program

Overview of the Ethiopian soil sector

Priorities and Challenges

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Soil information management is a key bottleneck: Ethiopian soil maps are outdated, lack detail, and have limited use in supporting soil conservation and land management interventions

The world soil map was published in 1970s by FAO and UNESCO at a resolution of 1:5M, which was then focused to 1:2M for Ethiopia by 1984

The soil map is based on soil surveys conducted in the 1930s to 1970s

The map is generated using soil information and technology from the 1960s - spatial information technologies were not used

Extracted for Ethiopia at a scale of 1:2M from the world soil map of FAO/UNESCO

SOURCE: Team analysis; FAO

Surveying the 97 lat-long confluence points will provide the granularity and detail needed to generate a comprehensive soil map for all of Ethiopia

13 SOURCE: Team analysis

37°E 35°E 39°E 41°E 43°E 45°E 47°E 15°N

13°N

11°N

09°N

07°N

05°N

03°N

Each of the 97 confluence points will need to be surveyed to create a systematic grid system that covers the country

~16,000 sites will be visited within these confluence points and ~120,000 soil samples taken

The results of all 97 points will generate a map with 100 meter resolution

The digital soil map combining soil survey and remote sensing will provide a variety of soil properties and characteristics

14 SOURCE: Team analysis

Data/Map Layers

Vegetation

– Above surface vegetation

Texture

– Erosion risk (wind and water)

– Soil particle size: % silt, sand, clay

– Infiltration Capacity

Organic Matter

– Nutrient Amount Present (N, P, K, Sulfur, etc.)

– SOC

pH and EC

– pH

– EC

Mineralogy

– CEC

– Minerals

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Ethiopia’s investment in fertilizer has not paid off; growth in fertilizer use has not resulted in commensurate increases in yield

1817161615141313

08/09 09/10 07/08 06/07 05/06 04/05 03/04 10/11

44

3435393634

2522

04/05 05/06 03/04 08/09 10/11 06/07 07/08 09/10

Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

2003/04-10/11

≈ 10%

2003/04-10/11

≈ 5%

Total cereal yield Qt/ht from 2003/04-2010/11

Total fertilizer applied for cereal crop 0000’ tonnes from 2003/04-2010/11

Source: CSA; Agricultural Sample Survey 2003/04-11,

• Blanket application of

DAP and UREA is not considerate of crop need, soil nutrient dynamics and agro-ecological factors

• Recent soil tests show

deficiencies in 6-7 nutrients, but DAP and Urea only supply 2 nutrients

• The government has resolved to address this issue by building fertilizer blending plants that can create blends specific to Ethiopia’s soil needs

Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

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Various partners are interested to collaborate with EthioSIS to conduct additional surveys covering about 150 high potential woredas

• As much as possible, the 150 woredas will be allocated on non-CP covered areas

• The woredas will split between partners as follows;

• CASCAPE: 30 woredas (22 AGP and 8 Non-AGP)

• Partner 1: 61 AGP and 22 Non-AGP woredas

• Partner 2: 37 Non-AGP woredas (concept note to be sent soon)

Partner 1 AGP

Partner 1 Non-AGP

CASCAPE AGP

CASCAPE Non-AGP

Partner 2

CASCAPE – 5 AGP not yet decided

Key organizational and management bottlenecks in the research and extension system require reorganization and capacitation

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Limited capacity

Ineffective collaboration

• Shortage of highly-qualified experts

• Historically, research budgets for soil issues have been a fraction of those for crop and livestock research

• Limited capacity at soil laboratories

• Regional and national research institutes often fail to coordinate

• Soil laboratories across the nation often fail to share data

• Research and extension are housed in separate organizations and often fail to collaborate, preventing new technology from being accessed by farmers

• A central independent soil research institute would ensure proper resources are dedicated to soil issues and ensure coordination between researchers

• New information sharing systems, equipment, and personnel will capacitate laboratories to conduct in-depth soil analysis

Innovations to help our country grow