Among the various crops, maize is a common warm weather cereal crop widely grown in Ethiopia. It is cultivated mostly at lower altitudes along the country's Western, Southwestern, and Eastern peripheries. Maize plays crucial role in Ethiopian agriculture, with approximately 8.96 million smallholder farmers engaged in its cultivation. This crop covered about 2.526 million hectares of cereal farmland in the country with average yield of 4 metric tons per hectare in 2022.
Maize crop in Ethiopia, similar to other countries, is vulnerable to diseases posed by insects and drought which in turn affects its yield.
For many decades, farmers grew maize in the traditional manner and the utilization of agricultural inputs is steadily growing. The crop particularly is vulnerable to drought and fall worms which brought a devastating consequence.
Recently, the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute Researchers accompanied by journalists made field trips in the outskirts of Hawassa where BT maize seeds were grown by farmers for experimental purpose.
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Muluken Philipose is a Director at the Wondogenet Agricultural Research Institute. He said that the productivity of maize in Ethiopia has not been reached to the required level. Hence, supporting through research and provision of extension services is essential.
However, he explained that in the last seven years, progress has been witnessed in maize production. In the last two years, the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute released three types of BT maize seeds in which their environmental friendliness, productivity and drought resistance capacity were endorsed by the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority.
As to him, South Africa allowed commercial farmers to grow BT maize and played crucial role to meet the market demand. Other countries are also planting and supplying to the market.
Enhancing the production and productivity of maize in Ethiopia plays vital role in ensuring nutritional and food security and concerted efforts are exerted by many stakeholders to realize the objectives.
As to Muluken, the BT Maize can enhance maize productivity up 40 - 60 quintals per hectare. The crop will benefit farmers economically and environmentally. It also enables farmers to save labor and time spending to transport and spraying chemical to protect the maize from insects.
Leta Tulu (PhD) is a Researcher at the National Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center and a Leader of the Department of TELA-Ethiopia Project. As to him, conventionally, farmers, in order to withstand the fall worm impact, they spray chemical on the crops which has its own repercussions.
It is proven that the maize farm utilized chemical as compared to the non- utilized farm brings better yields but as mentioned above, it has its own demerits.
Purchasing chemical is unaffordable to most of farmers; fetching water used to dilute chemical from remote areas and transporting by animals and humans back is a challenge; it also has environmental impact by killing other vital insects serve to balance the ecosystem. Farmers also resort to purchase chemicals after diseases outbreak; it also has health risks on farmers and animals. Spraying chemical after the worm entered deep into the trunk makes the effort meaningless.
The absence of dosage of chemical which is diluted with water to be sprayed put in question the venture.
As to Leta, trans-genic maize enables the crop to defend itself by its own capacity. The crop can produce the chemical which can kill the worm through releasing protein when it faces the intruder and such method is a preferable one. Seeds created by conventional genetic engineering are environmentally friendly.
Initially, BT was created as biological agent to defend the bacteria but it was not sustainable. Because it was affected by environmental factors such as rain, sunlight and others, it was not effective. Therefore, taking the gene from the bacteria and implanting in to the crop was taken as viable solution. Now, the crop can produce the toxic and defend itself from the worm by its own.
He further said that BT maize can be produced under the normal conditions with conventional farming practice such as preparing land, sawing the seed in the usual season and utilizing vital inputs. Productivity is determined by the interaction of the gene and environment.
Firew Mekbib, a Professor in the Haromaya University is the head of the National Variety Release. He said that land should be properly utilized to prevent abuse. To that end, applying improved farms management with improved seeds and extension services is essential.
Spraying chemical to protect the crop from insects brings negligible improvement on the productivity because before the spray the disease already brings damage on the crop. In addition, obtaining chemical is cumbersome and spraying becomes too late which makes the effort futile.
The quality of the chemical also is questionable because after farmers spending a lot of money for purchasing the chemical it might not be effective. Whether the farmers have knowledge with regard to utilizing the chemical is debatable. Transporting the chemical safely is a challenge to farmers. If cost benefit analysis is conducted, farmers would be losers.
As to Professor Firew, Maize, Soya bean, and Sugar bit are strategic crops in the Sidama region. Therefore, farmers should properly apply integrated farming management system.
These crops are staple food in the region and support efforts to attaining food and nutrition security. The bi-products serve to make feed to their animals. In the belg season maize is highly produced in the region. Farmers, in addition to obtain food for their consumption, they supply their surplus to the Addis Ababa market. In other parts of the country, maize is sawn in the month of Hamle (July). The agro ecology variation put farmers in advantageous position. In the Sidama region, mostly the seed is disseminated to farmers in the belg season.
Derese Teshome is a Public Relation officer at the Ethiopian Agriculture Research Institute. As to him, after passing the field trial two years ago, the BT maize was endorsed as environmentally safe seed by the Ethiopian Environmental Authority, disseminated in 10 experimenting sights all over the country and grew by farmers for trial purpose. Other farmers still not obtained the seed. With regard to utilizing the seed, trainings have been offered to farmers in the various parts of the country.
In the coming times, the BT Maize seed will be distributed based on the nation's seed distribution system through local companies. The local seed distributing companies also already showed their interest to distribute. The genetically engineered maize proved the effectiveness of the technology.
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As to Professor Mekbib, the BT maize was commercialized 30 years ago in other countries but Ethiopia did not release the genetically engineered seed by other country's data because the nation pursues strict policy based on the reality on the ground which considers the local agro-ecology.
Ethiopia is one of the African countries which have strong release system. The local seed companies have been selected and visited various Hi-breading sites. There are inspecting teams in the regions which check the quality of the maize. There must be 98% BT gene in each maize plant.
He further said that Maize is vital for practicing Integrated Agricultural Development and will be pipelined in the extension system. It has the capacity to ensure nutritional and food security.
He further said that Ethiopia has hard working farmers, researchers and partners and in such endeavor, revolutionizing the maize production and productivity will be possible.
Simon Mengesha is a farmer in the outskirts of Hawassa town experimenting planting BT cotton. As to him, in the past, his crop was critically affected by fall worms. He had no financial capacity to purchase chemical to withstand the insect and ultimately became bankrupt. He practiced planting BT maize for about two years and has been enhancing its productivity. Now, he can yield 50 quintals per-hectare and became profitable. The maize was not attacked by the worm and resisted drought. It is tasty and healthy.
