Binyam Tamene
19 June 2008
Addis Ababa — The role of irrigation in bringing about the much needed socio-economic transformation in the country remains at a minimal level, despite abundant resources, State minister of Water Resources said on Tuesday.
State Minister Adugna Jabessa said the country needed another 274000 hectares to come under irrigation within its 15-year plan period of 2002-16, an increase of 135% over the current levels, under the Irrigation Development Program (IDP) call for an additional.
But the low level of irrigation in the country would make that almost impossible unless the country could move towards scaling up its irrigation capacity by using its huge ground water resources.
Adugna made the statements in his opening speech of a workshop on Water Management & Ethiopian Agriculture.
"It has been repeatedly said that Ethiopia is endowed with abundant surface and ground water resources. However, this life-sustaining commodity is not yet fully developed to contribute to the socio-economic transformation of the country," he said "The total irrigation potential is in the range of 3-4 million hectares. Taking the case of irrigation, the amount so far developed is about 5%," he said "Hence this strongly indicates that there is great room for future expansion from development of irrigated agriculture," he added.
The state minister further indicated Ethiopia's extremely low level of hydraulic infrastructure and limited water resources management capacity undermine attempts to manage variability.
"It's not the overstatement to mention that Ethiopia's economic performance is virtually hostage to its hydrology and the cause for deepening poverty," state minister said.
Organized by the embassy of the State of Israel in Ethiopia, the two day workshop discussed on the major new trends in irrigation in light of failed crops in Ethiopia.
The workshop also raised and discussed on issues revolving around renewable energy sources: bio energy, growing sugarcane under drip as compared to flood risks, drip principles and solutions, marketing channels of vegetables to Europe and points to consider as well as growing rice under drip, based on the NETAFIM worldwide Admiring the role of Israeli private sector for conducting the experience-sharing workshop, Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia Yaacov Amitai on his part said this attitude of the private sector is inline with the longstanding approach of Israel implemented by MASHAV, the Center for International Cooperation of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, with Ethiopia "In recognition of the importance of enlarging the scope of irrigated land and introducing modern irrigation techniques to Ethiopia, the issue of water management and irrigation constitutes one of the components of the three year joint technical cooperation program run by MASHAV, the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, USAID," the ambassador said According to ambassador Yaacov said, based on this program, two irrigation demonstration plots have been established in Holeta and Melkasa aiming to function as a means of transferring know-how on irrigation to Ethiopian farmers.
The ambassador said the Israeli private sector like NETAFIM, could pay a big role in supporting Ethiopia's effort to develop cash crops with their experience with the current technological advancement "Covering new trends in irrigation of bio energy crops, sugarcane, cotton tea and coffee along with various fruits and vegetables, reflects the efforts of its organizers, (NETAFIM) to provide know-how and technological solutions relevant to Ethiopia's determination to develop its cash-rich crops, traditional crops as coffee and new ones as tea and bio-energy crops as well as supporting small holders to sustain their yields," the ambassador said Over the past three years, NETAFIM has been providing state- of-the-art drip irrigation equipments to agriculture companies here in Ethiopia and is actively engaged in providing technical support and training to farmers.
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