Addis Ababa August 26/2014 Ethiopia has gained meaningful results regarding small scale irrigation in terms of size of land developed through irrigation and amount of output, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

In Ethiopia, where over 82 per cent of the total population lives in rural areas, agriculture is the major means of earning a living and it's the backbone of the economy, constitutes about 43 per cent of the country’s GDP. Over 80 per cent of the country’s exports come from agriculture.

Because of dependency on rain fall agriculture has been highly vulnerable to crises caused by shortage of rainfall.

Untying agriculture productivity from rainfall dependence is a matter of survival for the country, since it is directly links with food security.

Increasing quality of inputs supply including seed and fertilizers, providing technical assistance to farmers using extension workers as well as promoting modern technologies are the major activities government has been engaged to increase productivity.

Promoting small holder farmers to use irrigation schemes to develop their land and cultivate crops three times a year is also what government has been working at.

Expansion of irrigation is one of the areas the government has put as priority in its five-year growth and transformation plan (GTP) so as to ensure accelerated and sustainable agricultural growth in the country.

The country has managed to achieve the goal set for the five year, a year ahead, according to Natural Resource Management Director at the Ministry, Tefera Tedesse.

The nation has cultivated 2.1 million hectares land last year, which exceeds the target by 300,000 hectares, a year ahead. Some 243 million quintals output, mainly, cereals, spices, fruits and vegetables, harvested from the stated land.

Priority given to small-scale irrigation and technical assistance to farmers as well as increased knowledge of farmers contributed for the success, he added.

The size of land developed through irrigation has been increasing during the first three years of the growth and transformation plan period, 2005 E.C.

The 2005 fiscal year was the most successful year in terms of achieving the target set in increasing size of land developed through irrigation. Some 405,000 hectares additional land was developed through irrigation in that year, which exceeds the target by 205,000 hectares.

But the performance of last fiscal year was below the target. During this year, the size of additional land developed through irrigation is only 217,000 hectares, less than the target, which was 220,000 hectares.

The country has huge potential for irrigation development, he added, Oromia regional state alone has over seven million hectares irrigable land. In addition from Oromia, Ahmara, Tigray and South Ethiopia Peoples’ states have vast land suitable for irrigation.

Despite this fact, the country has not effectively utilizing its potential due to various reasons, he said.

Quality and design of irrigation schemes and maintenance as well as market are major challenges for irrigation development.

The Ministry is working with stakeholders to solve challenges related to design and maintenance by using schemes suitable for each area and undertaking timely maintenance.

To ease the challenge related to market, the Ministry is working with state companies like EtFruit, producer and distributer of fruits in the nation, to collect outputs from farmers and distribute to the market.