Keshi Fisseha Berhe lives in a remote rugged village of Derokai (Almeda) in Adwa district, Tigray region. He is an innovator in honeybee colony splitting. Keshi Fisseha’s innovation in beekeeping caught our interest when wet met him in a zonal workshop organized by LIVES in Axum. To visit Keshi Fisseha’s backyard

apiary, we had to walk one and half hrs on foot along a steep slope hillside. It is within this hilly set up that one finds a surprising innovation in space saving and rapid honeybee colony splitting.

Keshi Fessiha gained basic beekeeping skills from his parents who kept traditional mud hives for honey production.  Back in 2004, he decided to shift to improved box hives when the local agricultural office pushed him to take a loan and buy three hives. Since then, the ever increasing price for improved box hives and the presence of a lucrative business for honeybee colonies have contributed to his ambition to invent a rapid and space saving colony splitting technique. Accordingly, he has successfully applied his innovation so he now has 60 improved box beehives inside his less than 900 m² backyard.

Against expectations, these colonies in box hives are used as mother hives for colony splitting. Keshi has forged partnerships with other farmers keen to share beehives for honey production, an arrangement that also helps him reduce the risks associated with vandalism. He firmly believes that honey harvests can be maximized by increasing the frequency rather than the intensity of harvest. That way, Keshi Fisseha and his shareholders are able to harvest an average of 60 kg of honey per hive within the three- month honey flow period.

In the improved hive boxes distributed by the agricultural extension system, frames are arranged vertically while Keshi Fisseha’s innovation is based on the horizontal expansion of the front sides of a hive. This enables him to insert up to 32 frames without violating the basic principles of spacing requirements. The frames are transferred to new empty hives when bees start to build combs in each frame. This way he successfully split a strong colony into six new hives.

Although the concept of horizontal hive is not new, Keshi Fisseha’s version of including large number of frames placed inside a horizontal hive and positioning hives close to each other (not greater than 10 mm) are unique innovations. Even at a larger scale, this also appears to supercede the conventional colony splitting blueprint that relies on wider spacing between the new and old mother hives, to avoid honey robbing.

The space saving and rapid colony splitting innovation Keshi Fisseha devised has helped him to specialize in colony marketing. His average annual income from the sale of beehive colonies is about 65,000 Birr, and he is the sole colony supplier for Adwa and its surroundings. Keshi also contributes to the district beekeeping platform members  that LIVES has set up by sharing his knowledge and skills.

Where there are shortages of honeybee colonies, innovations like this will benefit LIVES action and learning districts that are targeted for apiculture, as these are clustered into honey and colony marketing specializations. There is an obvious need to closely research the actual impacts of decreasing the distance between the new ‘weak’ and the old ‘strong’ hives before widely replicating this innovation to other areas.

Contributed by Yayneshet Tesfay (LIVES regional expert, Tigray) and Haile Tilahun (LIVES zonal coordinator, Central Tigray Zone)

Related stories:

• Beeswax from ‘Tej’ leftovers: An overlooked high value by-product

Poultry production is knowledge and skill intensive; it requires immediate responses when management appears suboptimal. The consequences of delayed actions include high morbidity and mortality of chicks, substantial economic losses, and total disinterest in poultry production.

Due to the delicacy of day old chicks, rural poultry in the Central Zone of Tigray is organized around the work of trained chick distributors. These distributors assume diverse roles as growers, marketers, trainers, and input suppliers. They help overcome an important knowledge and skill gaps that ordinary farmers face when they try to engage in market-oriented poultry production. Girum Asfiha and Nega Abraha are chick distributors operating in the Central Zone of Tigray. Both participated at the recent zonal workshop organized by the LIVES project.

They have created formal and informal links with day-old chick suppliers in Mekelle, Kombolcha and Debre Zeit. They buy the chicks for 29 Birr/chick  and sell them for 54 Birr/chick after feeding and managing them for 30-40 days. During this critical stage, they provide starter and grower feeds and apply scheduled vaccinations against major viral and bacterial outbreaks. The combination of improved management with timely vaccination has dramatically changed rural poultry intervention in Central Tigray. This once slow and often neglected activity has become an enterprise that contributes to the livelihoods of rural households.

The major customers of Girum and Nega are smallholder farmers in Laelai Maichew and Adwa. Sometimes they expand outside their local areas to meet market demands. In the past two and a half years, they have sold more than 100,000 chicks.

For Girum and Nega, getting hold of inputs is a major challenge. They have had to buy veterinary medicines from as far as Addis Ababa. Now days,  they are considering how they themselves could become intermediary traders by  linking smallholder poultry producers to large input suppliers.

As well as growing and selling chicks, Girum and Nega also train their clients in ration formulation and regular mass vaccination. They formulate and sell poultry rations from ingredients purchased locally. Maize, wheat bran and middling, cakes from noug, peanut and sesame, dried whole fish (captured from local rivers), alfalfa, limestone, bone and meat meals, premixes, and other antibiotics are their ingredients. For ingredients not available locally,  they get supplies from large feed ingredient suppliers in Mekelle and Addis Ababa (GASCO Trading PLC and Slaughterhouse). They charge 850 Birr for a pack of formulated chick food.

Abrehet Tareke is a woman farmer who lives near Axum. She was trained about chick management by Girum. After her training, she bought 100 Bovan Brown chicks and started her farm. She is also a member of the poultry platform that LIVES established in Laelai Maichew . After joining the platform discussion in July 2013, she expanded her poultry farm and planted alfa alfa as a feed source for her layer hens.

Abrehet’s hens started laying eggs in their 24th week and she now collect some 25 eggs a day, selling them each for 2.5 ETB in Axum city. She also sells fertile eggs to other farmers who incubate the eggs under natural setting. Now that she has new skills and knowledge, her immediate plan is to grow her flock size to 500 birds and build a truly market-oriented poultry farm. She plans to realize her vision by establishing a marketing group in her village with other interested farmers.

The recognition given to chick distributors and the training support has moved poultry interventions to a new phase and is contributing to the rapid adoption of improved poultry in rural areas. The distributors have assumed many roles along the poultry value chain and are filling in important knowledge and skill gaps faced by ordinary farmers. More efforts are needed to create links between distributors and private/public vaccine providers throughout the egg production life of layers. They also need to engage more youth, especially women, in market-oriented poultry production, which in turn attracts other value chain actors.

Contributed by Yayneshet Tesfay (LIVES regional expert, Tigray) and Haile Tilahun (LIVES zonal coordinator, Central Tigray Zone)

Related stories

• Chicken and egg marketing: Insights from traders in Meki, Oromia
  Poultry value chain innovation in Tigray

There is a deep bond between honeybees and people. They have lived together for thousands of years, though no one knows exactly when this relationship started. There is evidence that the relationship began in the early Stone Age, probably when people hunted and robbed hollow cavities in trees or rocks filled with honey. Gradually, the relationship developed from bee-killing to bee-keeping.

In bee-killing, humans torch the hive/cavity and then collect the honey and brood (larva and pupa). Most of the bees in the hive die and the ones that survive migrate. In bee-keeping, which is now more common, beekeepers forge close relationships with their bees; they smoke the hive and take only combs with pure honey and leave those containing brood. In times of feed shortage, they provide supplementary feed to the bees. Some farmers in Jimma say bees can even recognize the body odour of the hive owner. This is probably an interesting area for further investigation.

On a recent trip by the LIVES team and the head of the livestock agency of Dedo district, they witnessed both bee-killing and bee-keeping in the same district.

At one rural village, a farmer took seven beehives from a tree and torched them to take the honey. When the team reached the place, a few helpless bees were still alive. The hives themselves were destroyed and cannot be used in the future. It seems this is a common practice in the area. Many farmers burn hives and kill the bees. When they want honey again, they construct new ones or buy and hang them on a tree.

From this experience, it would seem that honeybees are in trouble and the relationship between people and honey bees, at least in that particular area, is not harmonious but destructive. Unless transformed, this practice will reduce the honeybee population and force migration of the bees. A great deal of work on awareness creation, skills development and the introduction of new technologies is required.

In Jimma Zone, the application of pesticides, herbicides and the encroachment of the “Euphorbia cotinifolia” plant are additional challenges to bees. The so-called ‘Caribbean copper’ plant contains a poisonous sap and kills bees feeding on it. It is commonly found in the southwest and southern parts of the country.  People in this area plant Caribbean cooper as an ornamental plant or a fence; they have little or no knowledge of its poisonous nature to bees. Awareness creation campaigns on this malicious plant (for bees) needs to be organized by the offices of agriculture and its stakeholders. A similar campaign has been done in Sidama and it has proved effective.

Contributed by  Gemeda Duguma (LIVES zonal coordinator, Jimma), Ephrem Tesema (LIVES gender expert), Dereje Legesse (LIVES Agri-business expert)  and  Gossa G/Medihin (Livestock agency, Dedo District)

Related stories

• Honeybee colony splitting techniques
• Beeswax from ‘Tej’ leftovers

Ethiopia has very diverse soil types and agro-climatic conditions. In some parts of the country, the agro-ecology oscillates in a short distance. This agro-ecological diversity is both a challenge and an opportunity for crop production. It enables people to produce crop types adaptable to tropical, subtropical and temperate climatic conditions throughout the year without using plant growth structures. On the other hand, it demands adaptable varieties for each agro-ecology, and systems to multiply and supply planting materials of improved varieties to farmers. It also requires that farmers get advice on appropriate varieties for specific farm soil types.

The Government of Ethiopia has established several agricultural research centers, higher learning institutes, and assigned agricultural extension workers in different parts of the country to tap opportunities as well as to solve problems associated with agroecological diversity. These institutions are striving to develop high yielding and adaptable improved varieties of different crop species for different agro-ecologies. Recently, private companies are also involved in variety development activities.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the research system of the country released or recommended 306 varieties of cereal crops, 169 varieties of pulse crops, 77 varieties of oil crops, 133 varieties of vegetable crops, 19 varieties of condiments and medicinal plants, 28 varieties of fruit crops, 19 varieties of forage crops, 19 varieties of fiber crops, and 37 varieties of stimulant crops up to 2012. In total, 807 improved varieties of different crop species adaptable to different agro-ecologies of the country are released or recommended. These improved varieties can only boost crop production if their seed or planting material is simultaneously multiplied and made available to farmers and if farmers plant these varieties in their recommended agro-ecology.

In Amhara region the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) regional project team made a quick assessment of the vegetable seed supply system at Bahir Dar and Gondar towns.  The assessment shows that farmers obtain vegetable seeds mainly from private seed retailers. As depicted in the table below, the planting material of most released varieties is not multiplied and made available in local markets. On the other hand, most varieties supplied by vegetable seed retailers are not listed in the crop variety register book of the country. These varieties may be either obsolete or may not be yet evaluated and recommended for production. This clearly indicates that there is a rift between vegetable crops variety development and seed supply in the country.

As the table shows, many of the vegetables widely used by local consumers as well as those which have huge export potential do not have released varieties. Some of the vegetable crops have only one recommended variety for production, regardless of the diverse agro-ecology and production season. On top of this, customers’ preference is diverse. For example, pungent and red-coloured onions are preferred for sauce preparation but mild and white onions are preferred as fresh vegetable; dark red pepper varieties are preferred as spice but mild and big pod sized peppers are preferred to serve as green pod; big sized head cabbage is preferred for hotels while medium sized head cabbage varieties are preferred for household use. Public and private research institutions are expected to fill this gap.

Nowadays, the demand for vegetable seed is steadily increasing with the expansion of irrigation infrastructure in different parts of the country. However, most of the vegetable seeds traded in the country are imported and expensive. For example, the seed price of an open pollinated tomato variety is 2300 birr/kg. Despite this, smallholders as well as investors are not widely engaged in tomato seed production. This is mainly attributed to lack of knowledge and skills on tomato seed production and processing.

A next step for the LIVES project and its relevant stakeholders is to organize short term training on vegetable seed production and processing techniques.

Contributed by LIVES regional team, Amhara 

Vegetable and fruit markets in Ethiopia are not well developed. The actors involved are too many and the chain is lengthy, without significant value additions in each channel. The time or input required per unit of output exchanged and the cost involved in transferring the products from the producer to the final consumer is assumed to be very high. The technical and economic efficiency of marketing is very low.

The role of brokers is often raised; they are important given the dispersed and small-scale production (millions of farmers produce diverse and small quantity of products, at times farmers produce different varieties of the same crop) and the lack of information between producer and traders. Brokers assemble the products of many smallholders, before they reach the wholesaler; they use the information in the central market to fix the farm gate prices, never to the advantage of the producers. Wholesalers of vegetables and fruits fix the wholesale prices and the retailers adjust the prices based on the whole prices when they sell them to consumers. This is in a nutshell how markets of vegetables and fruits perform in Ethiopia.

Cooperative marketing is raised in the light of maximizing linkages between producers and traders, particularly the wholesalers, in minimizing the role of brokers. Cooperatives could play an important role in creating linkages between producers and wholesalers by bulking and sorting the produce of many hundreds, if not thousands. Cooperatives will increase the negotiating power of members.

Cooperative societies also play an important role in inputs supply like improved seeds/seedlings, fertilizers and chemicals, loan and market information provision to members. They could play an important role in promoting quality products, through provision of improved seeds and seedlings to their members, and following proper harvesting and post-harvest practices. There are good and bad examples of cooperative societies. The successful ones have storage facilities of their own, directly supply to wholesalers in the central market, offer fair prices to members (based on the quality of their products), have proper financial and property management procedures and generate adequate capital to ensure their growth. Bad ones lack many of the facilities which successful cooperatives have; storage facilities, working capital, and proper financial management, just to mention a few.

The Ocholo lante fruit cooperatives in SNNPRS is an example of a successful cooperative. The major gaps noted during our recent visit were its too small fruit store and shaky financial management. The latter could be an entry point for the LIVES project. The Omo lante cooperative was another successful cooperative where banana is stored before it is shipped to the central market.

It is important to note that cooperatives should be seen as business organizations. This is important to overcome the negative picture of the past that was associated with cooperative societies and to ensure their financial sustainability. While in the past cooperative societies were often seen as part of the state, cooperatives today should be organized by members with limited interference from the government. The government should support cooperatives to be independent business entities.

During a recent visit to SPNNR, we got the impression that some local government offices were going beyond just providing support to establish and strengthen cooperatives to actually controlling or supervising such cooperatives. It is vital that relationships between local offices and local cooperatives are defined and implemented in line with the 147/1998 proclamation and the corresponding regional proclamations which favour provision of support by offices, rather than control.

Cooperatives could be established as long as they have adequate (although we do not have a precise definition of what ‘adequate’ means) members, producers and suppliers of the similar products. Cooperative societies do not work everywhere and at all times. It is important to highlight the key role and importance of cooperatives and farmers should see the reason for establishing them. LIVES could play an important role in strengthening weak cooperatives and establishing new ones, by proving capacity building to selected (potential) members and experts, where they are appropriate.

The legal framework for establishing marketing cooperatives and the organization for establishing and strengthening thereof, the promotion office, are present.

Contributed by Fitsum Hagos (Ph.D), Economist at IWMI/LIVES 

There is a broad consensus that most smallholder agricultural systems in Africa are far from being 21st century agriculture. Measured by multiple criteria including the use of technologies, application of inputs, and organizational and institutional set ups required for modern production, processing and marketing of agricultural produces, smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia is not exceptional. Focusing on the educated young ergeneration farming community has the potential to modernize traditional farming.

Behaylu Abraha is a young university graduate who owns and manages ‘YB Plant Micro Propagation PLC’ – a small family business engaged in hydroponic technologies in Mekelle. After working for a private tissue culture company for seven years, he decided to set up a private business in hydroponics (fodder, mushrooms, vegetables, and certified pre-basic and basic potato seeds) in a 420 m2 rented residential house. The actual effective area used for hydroponic fodder production is 160 m2.

Hydroponic fodder production involves the growing of cereal and legume grains using moisture and suitable nutrient solutions without soil, and harvesting green shoots and root mats within days. There are as many controversial issues as there are claims in the use of fodder hydroponics for feeding livestock. The frequently cited weakness is a reduction in dry matter when seeds are converted to sprouts. There are also reports that feeding barley and wheat sprouts led to increased animal performance.

Setting aside the unresolved issues, Behaylu built an ordinary plastic sheet cover to sprout seeds of alfalfa, barley, oats, and wheat. He recalled that at the beginning some of his clients had doubts about the actual feeding value of sprouts, and only slowly realized the benefits after they tasted the sprouts and root mats he offered them.

Today, the number of dairy farm owners relying on Behaylu for hydroponically produced barley fodder has grown steadily, reaching 400 milking cows. There are additional fatteners with more than 140 heads of finishing cattle fed on hydroponic fodder. Some poultry farm owners with more than 10,000 birds are also interested in feeding such green feed.

The current production capacity within the 160 m2 space is 1.2 t/day, and is projected to reach 25 t/day in the near future. For this purpose, the regional government of Tigray has offered Behaylu 3000 m2 land to expand hydroponic fodder production to large numbers of smallholder farmers. In fact there is a need to look at the actual response of feeding root mats and green shoots to dairy cows, poultry and small ruminants under smallholder farmers’ specific context. LIVES is collaborating with Behaylu in capacity development for landless youths and establishing linkages with dairy farmers and fatteners. Such collaboration is expected to yield result based production and economic evidence for some of the controversial issues surrounding the production and feeding of hydroponic fodder in the context of smallholder farmers in Africa.

Contributed by Yayneshet Tesfay, Gebremedhin Woldewahid, and Dirk Hoekstra

Smallholder farmer Tesfaye Aregawi runs a farm on a small plot of irrigable land and a dairy cow in Hadish-Hiwot kebele, in Tigray Region. Tesfaye has recently adopted an uncommon irrigation farming practice – he grows Alfalfa on a plot of about 300 square-meters for his dairy cow alongside his high-value vegetable crops. Allocating irrigable plots for fodder production has until now been unthinkable among smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. Neither do smallholder farmers grow sole fodder crops in rain-fed agriculture, where lower-value cereals are produced.

Tesfaye’s story is not an isolated one. Quite a number of farmers in LIVES intervention kebeles have opted to grow fodder in their irrigation and rain-fed plots. For instance, Gebretsadik Abay in Dura kebele, Tigray is delighted that his crossbred heifer conceived at an early age of 20 months, which he attributes partly to feeding alfalfa from his irrigated plot. Similarly, a woman farmer, Lemlem in Genfel kebele, Tigray grows Alfalfa under her irrigated fruit trees, a land which is normally used to grow food crops. She believes that supplementing her cow’s daily ration with Alfalfa increased daily milk production by about one liter. Fodder production in croplands is not limited to Alfalfa only. Grasses are also creeping onto croplands. In Amhara region in Enguti kebele, where LIVES introduced efficient delivery of AI through hormone-synchronization of estrus, farmers like Addis Alemu and Sintayehu Sinishaw, among others, allotted about 225 square-meters of their irrigated land to Napier grass production.

Likewise, farmer Tafere Zemene in Debremawi village decided to grow a productive Rhodes grass in his rain-fed plot of 1500 square meters. The farmer plans to set aside part of his grass plot for seed production thereby providing a source of input for other farmers.

Besides growing sole fodder crops in croplands, other innovative entry points for fodder production are being sought by farmers. No ‘wasteland’ is actually wasted by farmers like Keshi Tewolde-Birhan who lives in Dura kebele, Laelay-Maichew district, Tigray and grows Alfalfa & Napier grass on a 260 square-meter gully. Awareness is rising among farmers coached by LIVES and livestock production is becoming a market-oriented business for them.

What is driving the winds of change in fodder and livestock production? A thorough inquiry may be required to understand the driving forces. However there seems to be two obvious reasons. Farmers may be forced to seek for other sources of feed in the face of dwindling grazing resources. Yet, a shift in livestock development approach might have also played a significant role. Livestock development approach includes coaching of farmers on knowledge-based livestock development and linking them up with input suppliers such as fodder planting materials and market in order to adopt improved farming practices. This is the market-oriented value chain approach for livestock development adopted by LIVES.

The changes being witnessed could be considered as successes. However, to sustain irrigated fodder production in competition with high value irrigated crops and realize a market-oriented system that is envisaged by LIVES, the following needs to be considered. Economies of scale should be addressed as most farmers keep only one or two cows. Fodder productivity from small irrigated plots need to be further improved and fodder processing and conservation technologies should be introduced to sustain higher scales of production. Mechanical feed choppers help ease laborious manual chopping, reduce wastage and facilitate feed conservation through small scale silage making. LIVES’ strategy is to work with clusters of farmers in its intervention kebeles in collaboration with Bureaus of Agriculture, Livestock Development Agencies and other partners in the value chains. Transfer of best practices to learning kebeles will be through a spill-over effect and active dissemination by partners through capacity building and joint planning. It is thus imperative that partners actively collaborate to disseminate the best practices witnessed in fodder development.

Written by Solomon Gizaw, with contributions from Yayneshet Tesfaye, Gebremedhin Woldewahid, Dawit Woldemariam, Haile Tilahun, Zeleke Mekuriaw, Teshome Derso, Worku Teka, Mesfin Tefera

Livestock keepers in Barka-Adisba kebele, Atsbi-Womberta district, Tigray region were once confronted with ‘the tragedy of the commons’, as do many livestock keepers in Ethiopia who depend on communal resources. The idiom ‘the tragedy of the commons’ was coined in 19^th century Britain and expresses the failure of farmers to achieve the collective good of their communal grazing lands through their destructive competitive use. The tragedy is caused by overstocking and overgrazing and expressed in land degradation, feed shortage, low livestock productivity and loss of farmers’ livelihoods from livestock. The Atsbi villagers also had to deal with land policy which stipulated closure of degraded hillside grazing/browsing and discouraged extensive grazing of livestock in communal lands.

The Atsbi livestock keepers however acted proactively through the LIVES’ predecessor project (Improving Productivity and Market Success of Smallholder farmers) in a community-based approach. In 2007, a group of villagers sharing 60 ha of communal land in Barka-Adisba kebele came together and developed by-laws for governing their communal land. They declared the land closed to livestock grazing, apportioned it to the villagers in the group and adopted hay production and stall-feeding for their livestock. These farmers saved their lands from degradation and their livelihoods from peril. This cooperative’s voluntary activity has now been scaled up. The grazing land under sustainable management in the district increased to 4000 ha in 2012.

The Atsbi experience has shown that community-based institutional intervention is a feasible approach to avert degradation of communal lands, losses in biodiversity and livestock productivity as well as farmers livelihoods. This approach is more acceptable to villagers rather than enforcing regulations on them. The success of the approach lies in the fact that it is based on existing social norms and promotes a sense of belongingness. Community-based institutional interventions to prevent the tragedy of the commons could take various forms. For instance, in Dura kebele, Laelay-Maichew district the communal land is passed on to and managed by the village church, while the villagers maintain their use right. Other variations of the community-based approach could be adopted depending on local circumstances.

Changes in social arrangements or institutional interventions may not be the only solutions to avert the tragedy. Technical interventions to rehabilitate and improve grazing lands are also required as most communal lands are already degraded. Otherwise, it might not be feasible to close grazing lands and sustain livestock under stall feeding systems. In its future intervention kebeles, LIVES plans to introduce additional technological interventions to enhance pasture productivity, hay production management and storage including introduction of small-scale manual hay balers. The approach described here is perfectly suitable for promoting intensive dairying and fattening systems with small flocks/herds. Would it also be applicable to extensive systems with large breeding flocks (like the subalpine regions of Ethiopia) which could be the source of animals for the semi-intensive fattening systems and the export market?

Written by Solomon Gizaw, with contributions from Yayneshet Tesfaye, Gebremedhin Woldewahid, Dawit Woldemariam, Haile Tilahun 

Maize stover in the field is prone to wastage and tramping by animals (Photo:ILRI\ Solomon Gizaw).

Maize is a major food crop in the lowlands and mid-highlands of Ethiopia, but its stover is not utilized efficiently as animal feed, particularly in rain-fed maize production systems. Rain-fed maize producers’ target is commonly grain production which requires that the cobs be harvested at full maturity of the maize plant thereby leaving the stover too dry. Dry stover is low in nutrients (e.g. 3.7% crude protein as compared to 8.8% in green stover), is less palatable and is not well suited to conserve as silage.

Irrigated maize production offers an opportunity which the rain-fed maize farming does not. Farmers in Fale Kebele of Meta Robi District in Oromia region, like most farmers in irrigated maize systems in Ethiopia, harvest green maize at its milk stage to be sold for roasted cobs. This production strategy is governed by the need to harvest early in the rainy season before the cropland is flooded, which is a common occurrence in low-lying irrigated fields in the wet mid-highlands. Similarly, irrigated maize is usually harvested while green in the moist highlands in order to maximize the benefits from irrigation such as the ability to do multiple cropping. In most cases, sweet-corn provides green fodder as the cobs are meant for fresh use and harvested while the plant is still green. Irrigated maize and sweet-corn production thus allows production of green and fresh stover, which is more nutritious and palatable for livestock than dry stover.

However, similar to dry stover, green stover is also not utilized efficiently by Ethiopian farmers in Fale and elsewhere. The common practice is either to graze the stover in situ or collect, store and feed whole stalks to animals. Such practices result in wastage from trampling by animals and loss of nutrients due to drying and leaching from exposure to sun and rain because of inappropriate storage practices.

A farmer youth group in Fale  was introduced to an innovative way of taking advantage of fodder opportunities offered by irrigated maize farming. Known as the ‘livestock technology-led agribusiness approach’, the method involves twin fodder processing and conservation technologies that use a mechanical feed chopper and small-scale plastic-bag-silage making. This fodder technology package reduces wastage, allows mixing total ration, conserves nutrients in green fodders and improves palatability. The agribusiness approach coaches private entrepreneurs or groups of livestock producers to run small-scale fodder chopping services using mechanical feed choppers/shredders. To this end, the farmer youth group in Fale is being coached and mentored by the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) Project to start a fodder processing and conservation business.

Written by Solomon Gizaw (PhD) with contributions from Abule Ebro (PhD) and Addisu Abera.

Onions from the Koga irrigation scheme prepared for distant markets (Photo:ILRI\ Yigzaw Dessalegne)

Ethiopia has diversified agro-ecology with altitudes ranging from 200 meters below sea level to 4,260 meters above sea level, various soil types and different seasons. This has enabled Ethiopian farmers to produce and supply different types of fresh vegetables throughout the year. Vegetables produced in the north are marketed in the south, west or east and vice versa.

Unlike in developed countries, the majority of vegetables in Ethiopia are transported and stored at room temperature. These poor transportation and storage methods result in high post-harvest losses and subsequently trigger daily market price oscillation. As a result, vegetable traders in Ethiopia, both at high and low level, take time and great care in monitoring vegetable varieties and prices across the country daily, often using their mobile phones, so that they only buy the small quantities they need for short periods.

Some traders buy their vegetables and collect them from as far as 700 kms away from their home towns. In previous years, vegetable traders incurred high operational costs in transportation and travelling time. Nowadays, however, they are able to solve this problem by using their mobile phones. Traders in Bahir Dar, for example, now use their mobile phones to order for supplies from Adama, Shashemene or Asela, towns which are an average of 800 kms from Bahir Dar. They deposit payments directly in the wholesalers’ bank account and receive their goods without having left their home towns. Traders also explained that, in most cases, they have never even seen their suppliers or bulk customers in person.

This situation illustrates that mobile phones are easing vegetable marketing problems in Ethiopia and they have great potential in providing market information services to vegetable producers and traders. The use of mobile phones to access market and other value chain information is an area that the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) Project should build on.

Written by Yigzaw Dessalegne (PhD) with contribution from the LIVES Amhara team. 

An agricultural knowledge centre in southern Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/LIVES).

Ten years ago, access to computers, the internet and other information communication technology (ICT) tools was practically unheard of in the rural districts of Ethiopia. Conventional extension service delivery came in the form of face-to-face knowledge exchange, demonstrations, trainings and visits, handwritten reports and scant reference materials, some as old as 20 years.  However, things are changing fast. ICTs have become necessities for day-to-day work execution. Mobile phone coverage and access to computers has increased exponentially in the country in the past few years.

Agricultural technologies and innovations are widely available through the internet in different ICT formats throughout the world. To harness this potential, the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project set out to establish resource centres in district offices of agriculture in its operation sites across the country. The resource centres or agricultural knowledge centres (AKCs) as they are called in LIVES, are places where ICTs are the main sources of agricultural resources. Each of these AKCs is equipped with computers, TV/DVD combination players, printers, LCD projectors, cameras and furniture as well as printed and digital publications from the Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and other partners.

Lessons from LIVES’ predecessor–the Improving the Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers (IPMS) project– played a big role in the process of setting up these centres. Of the 36 AKCs that LIVES has set up over the past year and half, the AKCs in Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples (SNNP) region are a near perfect illustration of the process and the use of these centres.

Initially, the LIVES SNNP team described the benefits of having such centres to the district agriculture officials and followed this up with a study tour to a knowledge centre that was set up by the IPMS project in Dale District. That tour convinced the visitors of the benefits of establishing such centres. Upon completion of the study tour, rooms were allocated for the AKCs in SNNP and in the case of Bensa District, a budget of ETB 350,000 (approximately USD 17,500) was set aside for a building.

After allocation of the rooms, LIVES delivered the materials and equipment as agreed. The Office of Agriculture (OoA) assigned a knowledge centre manager who would oversee the delivery of service and use of resources. Many of these managers have full-time jobs elsewhere in the Office of Agriculture. Additionally, the OoA worked with the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) to get access to ADSL broadband internet service after agreeing that LIVES would provide financial support for the first two years after which the OoA would pay for these services.

The commitment from the LIVES zonal coordinators, focal persons and the AKC managers in SNNP has allowed the centres to provide services that were previously difficult to access. Experts come to the centres to read, watch videos, deliver/attend presentations and use digital cameras to capture activities and results in the field. For instance, the focal person in Arbegona District takes and prints pictures from the field for display on the AKC noticeboard, while others have brought back pictures from the field in Bona Zuria Woreda to share progress of their work with colleagues and supervisors. Additionally, the district agriculture office staff use the AKCs for meetings and workshops.

However, access to electricity is still patchy in all the district offices of agriculture where the AKCs are set up. There are power cuts for about 80% of the working hours in a week. To compensate for this, some AKC managers open the centres after office hours and during weekends.

Lack of education, training and skill is also a challenge that affects full use of these agricultural knowledge centres. Books or manuals and other written resources are not regularly used for day to day activities. Primarily because the reading culture is under developed as there are no such resources, and even if there were they were not easily accessible to the experts.

Also, despite opportunities to use the internet in AKCs, these services are underutilized. District agricultural experts do not use computers in day-to-day activities and many of them lack the skills in using computer-based facilities like email. Most use the internet to look for jobs or education opportunities.

To address, these gaps in computer literacy and information on what is available on the web as well as in the AKCs, the LIVES SNNP team has set up short IT courses to build the capacity of the staff in Sidama. As a result, the staff started using computers to type and print reports and other documents. The project is now working in partnership with the officials and the users to fully use the AKCs  in SNNP and other  sites.

Related stories

Agricultural knowledge centres facilitate  agricultural learning and sharing in Ethiopia 

World Milk Day was celebrated in Hawassa city, the capital of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS) in Ethiopia on 30 June 2014. Milk is an important part of a healthy balanced diet and World Milk Day is the perfect opportunity to spread word on the nutritional benefits of drinking milk. This was the first time the day was celebrated in Hawassa though in other parts of the world, the event has been observed for fourteen years.

This event was jointly organized by the Regional Bureau of Agriculture, USAID’s Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (AGP-LMD) project, ILRI’s Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project and SNV Netherlands Development Organisation’s-EDGET project. The organizers’ aim was to:

• Increase awareness of the nutritional benefits of consuming milk and dairy products,
• Increase awareness of the need to boil/pasteurize milk,
• Inspire the government and dairy industry to organize similar events in the future in order to increase milk consumption.

Participants drawn from the Bureau of Agriculture, the Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Hawassa University, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), private dairy producers and processors, students and city residents, took park in the event.

In his keynote address, the deputy director of the Regional Livestock Development Agency highlighted the major reasons for the low milk consumption in the country and requested all governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to engaged in dairy development and service provisions to bring about changes in attitude, create demand for consumption of boiled and pasteurized milk, improve milk supply by improving dairy value chains, which contributes to the health, productivity of citizens. He further stressed that the region is committed to support initiatives and events such as the World Milk Day.

Traditional music, dancing, poetry readings, question/answer sessions and educative dialogues took place during the event to convey messages on the health benefits of drinking milk as well as the importance of boiling/pasteurizing dairy products. More than 3,000 brochures and flyers highlighting the objectives of World Milk Day, the importance of milk consumption, the nutritional value of milk and the need for boiling/pasteurizing raw milk were distributed to participants and Hawassa residents in the four areas where the event took place. Many participants also enjoyed refreshing pasteurized whole milk and yoghurt that was brought to the event by private producers and processors for promotional purposes.

Debub Television program of the Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (ERTA) and FM 100.9 Radio broadcast the event live to the wider public.

World Milk Day was also celebrated in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia regions with the involvement of the respective LIVES staff  in those areas.

Last year (2013), the World School Milk Day was celebrated for the first time at Nigist Fura Elementary and Secondary School in Hawassa  on 25 November 2013. The event was jointly organized by the Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (AGP-LMD) project of USAID and the LIVES project of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

The World School Milk Day aims to promote the nutritional benefits of drinking milk, encourage young children to drink milk and urge families to provide their children with milk. About 2,335 people attended that event, of which about 65% (30% male and 35% female) were students, 2.57% (24 male and 36 female) were teachers and school administrators, 30% were parents of the students and 2.43% were public stakeholders. Milk producers and processors, distributors and other individuals also attended.

Contributed by Yoseph Mekasha and the SNNPRS LIVES team.

Ethiopia’s millions of cattle owners face challenges to increase the productivity of their animals. They often struggle to keep them healthy and well-fed. Managing the quality of the breed is one of the challenges that is getting better, thanks to improvements in the ways that artificial insemination (AI) services are provided.

Traditionally, AI agents travel around rural areas servicing cattle. This has often been more miss than hit, and cows often do not get pregnant. When they do, the desired female calves don’t always appear.

In its last years, the ‘Improving the Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers’ (IPMS) project initiated a series of interventions to try and improve the ways that AI services are delivered. It also sought to increase the chances of success, through hormone synchronization, and female calves, through sex-fixing.

This short film introduces the approach followed and the initial results.

The International Livestock Research Institute’s Azage Tegegne, who leads the Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project has been honoured by the Ethiopian Government for his role in improving dairy cattle genetics and dairy value chain development in the country.

His action research in ‘the application of hormone assisted estrous synchronization and mass insemination’ technology to enhance cattle genetic improvement through improved reproductive performance’ was recognised by H.E Ato Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, at the 5th national award on science, technology, innovation and research. The award ceremony, held at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa on 15 November 2014, was attended by high-level government officials, diplomats, representatives of the international community, family members of the awardees and other invited guests.

Azage’s research was part of the Improving Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers (IPMS) project, which brought together researchers from the Tigray Agricultural Research Institute, Tigray Agriculture and Rural Development Office and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in implementing the genetic improvement work in Wukro, Adigrat, Adwa and in Axum, Ethiopia. Azage was the principal researcher in the project and also led capacity development of regional experts and artificial insemination technicians. Azage secured finance from ILRI to carry out the work as well.

Successes from this project are now being scaled out to other parts of the country including the Amhara, Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s regions.

Azage, along with LIVES staff, continues to support regional partners in capacity development and providing technical advice for the continued improvement of dairy genetics in Ethiopia.

The award ceremony also recognized students and teachers, trainees and trainers, researchers and innovators who have registered outstanding innovation model and technology in science and mathematics, technical and vocational education, research and innovation in Ethiopia.

Read a related story from LIVES blog: More money, milk and meat: Mass artificial insemination for Ethiopian cattle

National media coverage of the event

የቴክኖሎጂ አቅምን ለማሳደግ ለሚደረጉ ጥረቶች ድጋፍ ይደረጋል፡-ጠ/ሚ ኃይለማርያም

PM awards 268 Ethiopians for outstanding achievements in science, technology and innovation

The Oromia region contributes about 44% of the total annual milk produced in Ethiopia. Smallholder farmers in Oromia contribute the largest portion of this yield, but linkages between them and other dairy value chain actors at various levels, which could increase production and consumption of milk and milk products in the region, are weak or lacking.

To address gaps in the dairy production in the region, the Oromia Livestock Development and Health Agency (OLDHA) in partnership with Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project established the Oromia dairy platform on 6 November 2014. The purpose of this platform is to create a dialog and policy forum for relevant stakeholders in the dairy sector. Key goals of the platform’s first meeting were to:

• identify how dairy sector stakeholders can better work together in various capacities and competencies to support the dairy value chain development in Oromia region
• identify constraints, opportunities and develop strategies for addressing challenges and promote dairy value chain in the region and;
• identify initial steps and modalities for ensuring a dynamic and responsive dairy platform

Forty participants, of whom five were females, attended this first meeting. The participants were milk producers, input suppliers, service providers, milk collectors and processors, milk and milk product traders, representatives from SNV Netherlands – Ethiopia, LIVES, public service providers such as Oromia Agricultural Research Institute,  Oromia Trade and Market Development Bureau, Oromia Bureau of Agriculture, Oromia Bureau of Finance and Economic Development (OFED), OLDHA, Oromia Cooperative Promotion Agency and others organizations working in the dairy value chain in the region.

The one-day event included presentations and discussions on status of dairy development and research in Oromia region, overview of an agricultural value chain platform and practical experience-sharing on dairy platforms. Participants also reviewed opportunities, constraints and possible solutions for improving dairy production, input supply/service provision and processing and marketing of dairy products. After the discussions, participants agreed on the need to set up a dairy platform.

As a way forward, issues of how the platform would be sustained were also discussed.  A participatory working group was created to lead the platform and make preparations for registering the platform. Accordingly, seven members were elected to the working group which is chaired by an OLDHA official, with an OFED official as deputy and a LIVES project staff member serving as secretary. The other five members are from other institutions. The Oromia Bureau of Finance and Economic Development agreed to allocate money to support the platform if OLDHA includes the platform’s activities in its annual budget proposal. The working group is expected to organize a second platform meeting to further build on this momentum. The working group will also develop terms of reference (ToR) to guide future engagements of the platform in terms of management, financing, ownership, membership and contribution.

Written by Abule Ebro  and Zewdie Adane with contribution from Tolera Debela  

Etaferahu Bogale and Zewdu Berasso are a married couple who live in Daye  town of Arbegona district in Sidama zone, Southern Ethiopia. The couple own a small shop in the heart of the town where among other items, eggs are sold.

Chicken eggs are an important source of protein and income for smallholders in many parts of Ethiopia. Sidama zone’s chicken population is about 1.3 million (16% of the region) of which about 16% are located in the intervention districts (Arbegona, Bona zuria and Bensa) of the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) Project. These three districts are situated in mid to highland agro-ecologies.

Etaferahu and Zewdu packing eggs for transportation to Hawassa market (Photo:ILRI\LIVES SNNP regional team)

Etaferahu and Zewdu buy eggs from Arbegona district and sell them in Hawassa town. On average, they collect between 13,000 – 15,000 eggs per week to take to the market in Hawassa. About five other egg traders with similar capacities are also operating in the district.

There are 3 market days in and around Daye town of Arbegona, but egg collection is not limited to these days. Etaferahu and Zewdu get their eggs from village collectors who collect eggs from different village markets and get a commission of ETB 0.10/egg. Most village collectors receive working capital to purchase an agreed number of eggs. Sometimes young boys or girls collect eggs and occasionally chicken owners deliver eggs to the couple when they need cash.

In Arbegona, traders inspect egg quality subjectively. The inspection includes manually weighing an equal number of eggs (i.e. if eggs of equal size in one hand are heavier, the conclusion is that they are spoiled), observing physical appearance (the ones that attract flies are spoiled) and looking at the egg against the sun and if the inside seems dark/opaque, the egg is probably spoiled but if it is transparent/bright it is of good quality. Etaferahu and Zewdu use the same method to inspect their eggs. Those that pass the assessment are kept for the Hawassa market while those that don’t are returned. Traders in Hawassa (wholesalers/retailers) also use the same method of quality assessment.

The price of eggs fluctuates following the fasting season of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. For example during the recent fast of Assumption (Dormition) which occurs in the month of August, the price of an egg in Arbegona market dropped from ETB 2.25 to 1.90. Traders in Arbegona usually purchase eggs anywhere from ETB 2.15 – 2.40 each, depending on the quality, volume and regular supply; the higher margin occurs during major holidays such as the Ethiopian New Year.

According to Etaferahu and Zewdu as well as other traders in Hawassa, there is no difference in price between eggs from indigenous and exotic birds during collection, however the selling price of the latter is slightly lower than the former at the Hawassa egg market. Traders normally market mixtures of the different types of eggs together and the larger sized eggs are sold at a higher price in the Hawassa egg market.

Etaferahu and Zewdu have noticed that eggs from indigenous chicken from Arbegona are preferred by the Hawassa market because of their better size and quality. Traders in Hawassa market also indicated that the eggs from Arbegona are larger and have a longer shelf life.

After collection, Etaferahu and Zewdu assemble the eggs in wooden boxes, which were originally constructed to transport tomatoes. They place different packing materials (such as teff or wheat straw) inside the boxes to protect the eggs. Etaferahu mentioned that some of the eggs which break during quality assessment and packing prior to transportation are used to make omelettes for customers in their shop.

Wooden creates for egg packing and transportation  (Photo: ILRI\LIVES SNNP team)

Each week, anywhere from 13 to 15 boxes, each with about 1,000 eggs, are packed and transported to Hawassa. The packed boxes are transported by trucks along with other commodities such as vegetables. Transport charges are ETB 25 per box and approximately 20 eggs per box (1%) get damaged during transport.

Retailers in Hawassa use small cardboard or bamboo boxes and plastic bags with similar packing materials when they sell the eggs. They also use sawdust from furniture shops and saw mills as packing material.

Etaferahu and Zewdu are eager to improve and expand their egg marketing business beyond the Hawassa market but face many challenges. These include lack of working capital, especially during peak demand periods, poor egg transport containers and lack of a proper egg transport system. Moreover, since the couple does not have direct linkage with consumers such as hotels, pastry shops and other institutional buyers, they sell eggs at a lower price directly to wholesalers/retailers at Hawassa market.

To help address their working capital limitations, Zewdu attended a training on Basic Business Skills organized by LIVES. The training included topics such as business plan preparation as well as marketing. Staff from Omo Micro Finance and technical staff from the Zonal Office of Agricultural also took part in the workshop. This helped Zewdu create linkages to develop a business plan which will then be considered by a lending institution.

To reduce losses due to packing/transportation, LIVES is assisting in identifying sources for improved egg packaging materials. LIVES will also provide further support on possible markets and egg bulking arrangements to reduce transport cost per unit of egg in LIVES intervention districts in Sidama.

Written by Yoseph Mekasha and Dirk Hoekstra with contributions from Tesfaye Shewage, Birhanu Biazin,and Dereje Legesse

More pictures  of chicken egg marketing

Harvesting hay in West Shoa Zone, Oromia (photo:ILRI\Abule Ebro).

Grazing land contributes about 67% of livestock feed resources in West Shoa Zone in Oromia, Ethiopia; making it an important resource that deserves attention. This blog story shares the perceptions of communities and experts about the vast wetland grazing areas in the highlands of Ejere and Ada-Berga districts of West Shoa Zone.

Before 2007-08, the system of wetland grazing management  in Ejere and Ada-Berga was communal although there was loose control by individuals on their grazing lands. Nowadays, however, private grazing land and hay preparation are more common in West Shoa Zone. ‘If a person is herding animals in June in one place, you will find them in the same place in September’ explains a community member in West Shoa Zone; showing the high level of private use of grazing lands and the disruption of the previous system that rotated grazing between wetland and upland areas. At the moment, private grazing lands (0.25 to 0.5 ha/household on average) are used for hay making and/or grazing. Furthermore, private grazing lands are larger in size than communal ones and the latter are diminishing.

The reasons for strengthening private use of grazing lands and hay preparation vary from locality to locality. For instance, during 2007/08 period in the Elu-Aga Peasant Association (PA) of Ejere District, there was a conflict in the use of grazing lands between those owning large and small number of animals. This led to strong efforts in protection of grazing lands and preparation of hay. Thus, farmers who own large herds started to buy hay and rent grazing lands for seasonal use to those with smaller herds. At the same time, community members in Maru-Chebot PA in Ada-Berga said they started protecting their grazing lands to preserve (from animal trampling) the nesting sites of Berga birds that migrate seasonally from South Africa to breed in Ada-Berga. To protect the birds’ breeding grounds, the community and the Ethiopian Wildlife Heritage agreed to reduce the number of grazing animals, set up a proper grazing system and to use hay to feed their animals.

In addition, the need to prepare hay has increased because farmers, regardless of their economic status, want to adopt indoor feeding for their animals and to conserve feed for the dry season, particularly for dairy cattle. Farmers use different criteria in selecting sites for hay production. Important criteria include presence of enough moisture/water in the land as well as alluvial/fertile soil and good grass species. They protect the land from grazing by fencing and implementing traditional by-laws on land use. Only few of the farmers, about 1%, use urea and/or manure to fertilize their grazing land. Scythes are the common tools used for harvesting grass and the labour cost of harvesting is between ETB 1,500-1,600/hectare (USD 75-76) and a hectare of land for hay making and/or grazing for one season costs about ETB 4,000 (USD 200). Buyers cover all costs incurred in hay preparation.

Farmers primarily produce hay for home use and to a limited extent, for sale. The dried hay is stored in house, piled up outside with or without wood/stone under it and sometimes prepared as baled hay.

Twelve years ago, the price of baled hay was about ETB 3.50-7.00 but it now costs ETB 27-35. Bailing services cost about ETB 6.00/bale. At times, individuals buy the grass and cover all preparation costs which amount to about ETB 14/bale. The cost of bailing is high, particularly for small-scale farmers in Ethiopia, and many are concerned that the rising price of hay (about ETB 85/bale in Addis Ababa) and other livestock feeds will make dairy production unprofitable unless the price of milk is also increased.

In recent years, the communal grazing lands in many PAs in Ada-Berga were allocated to unemployed youth groups by PA administration so that they could generate income from the sale of grass/hay. The youth groups protect the land from grazing by fencing, implementing traditional by-laws and hire labour from income from the sale of grass. However, due to lack of knowledge and skills on grazing land management as well as methods of rehabilitation, they haven’t done much except fencing the land.

According to communities in the two districts; in the past, these grazing areas had high production and nutritious herbaceous plants for livestock. But the wetlands which used to be swampy are drying up in many places and are reducing in size. As a result, meat and milk production and productivity has declined. Moreover, the increase in human and livestock populations and the associated land use changes has resulted in overgrazing, and deteriorating grass quality because pastures do not have sufficient time to recover.

Until recently, there were no rehabilitation activities to improve the condition of these grazing lands. But now, land owners, such as those close to the Holleta Research Centre are using manure as fertilizer and in places where rain water accumulates, are digging canals to drain excess water to enable grass to grow. Although farmers in the dairy producing areas want to use commercial fertilizers on their grazing lands, the high cost of fertilizer often discourages them from using it.

In this era of climate change, much has to be done in awareness creation and training regarding grazing land management and rehabilitation. The degraded grazing lands need to be rehabilitated in a participatory way based on the extent of degradation. Furthermore, detailed ecological and sociological evidence is needed to document the changes in wetland grazing areas and design interventions. The Livestock and irrigation value chains for Ethiopian smallholders (LIVES) project and its partners will play a significant role on this aspect. The use of manual balers, that LIVES is currently testing in West Shoa Zone as well as other project sites will help farmers/groups to bale hay more efficiently and cheaply.

Written by Abule Ebro (PhD), Adisu Abera and Zewdie Adane.

The baseline survey of the LIVES project and the IPMS sponsored rapid butter market appraisal study clearly demonstrate the importance of butter in rural Ethiopia. The results of the rapid market survey conducted in the 10 Pilot Learning Woredas provided an insight into the functioning of the butter value chain. Results show that to improve the production of fluid milk and to increase the production of butter in rural areas, feed and fertility management need to be improved. Genetic improvement, especially crosses of local breeds with high fat content breeds, should also be encouraged. Since artificial insemination (AI) is not usually available in rural areas, use can be made of mobile teams and hormone assisted oestrus synchronization and mass insemination.

The working paper starts by describing butter production system in Ethiopia and its importance in the LIVES project areas.  It then presents results obtained from the LIVES baseline data exercise as well as from the rapid butter value chain assessment study conducted by the IPMS project. The final section presents conclusions and recommendations on strategies and interventions to increase the size and efficiency of the butter value chain in the country.

Download the working paper

Knowledge centre management and use training workshop in Dessie, Jun 14-15 2014 (photo credit: LIVES).

Training is one of the most widely used capacity development approaches to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes of individuals. Many organizations invest resources and train their employees to improve organizational performance. However, research shows that only about 10% of training programs by organizations transfer knowledge to improved performance in the workplace.

A number of factors affect transfer of knowledge and skills including trainee characteristics, training design, delivery methods and processes as well as work environment. To address these transfer problems, a number of strategies can be embedded in the design and delivery of training programs.

This story describes two knowledge transfer strategies ‘learning logs’ and ‘action planning’  which are being tested and used in the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project to facilitate application of knowledge and skills from training events to the work environment.

Learning logs use active learning to encourage trainees to take responsibility for their own learning and applying what they learn. This strategy encourages trainees to understand the need for a training and find a reason for learning by relating training objectives and content to their work context. Trainees formulate their own learning goals and monitor the learning progress throughout the training process.

A learning log facilitates reflection of the learning process and outcomes by the trainees themselves. The tool presents trainees with a check-in and check-out process that includes questions to facilitate daily reflection and journaling of key learning and insights, observations, lessons learned and possible actions to take. This process helps trainees internalize the learning process and relate key learning with their work. It also facilitates retention and application of knowledge and skills from training programs.

The other transfer of knowledge strategy during training events is action planning. It is important that trainees become motivated to apply learned knowledge and skills and action planning helps to do just this. At the end of training programs, trainees develop action plans that identify activities, contexts and requirements for the application of the newly acquired knowledge and skills. The action planning tool can also include deliverables, milestones and mechanisms to monitor and self-evaluate progress.

As part of the action planning exercise, a force field tool is used to identify perceived opportunities and constraints for application of knowledge and skills and to come up with mitigation strategies.

Experience from the LIVES project shows that when training is coupled with coaching and mentoring, learning becomes continuous and experiential and has relevance to practice. Action planning is required to provide post-training support for effective application of new knowledge and skills in the work environment. Most of the knowledge and skills gained from training programs cannot be effectively retained and applied without repetition and practice so trainees are provided with coaching and mentoring support as well as performance feedback on a regular basis. Coaching and mentoring involve not only technical support but also organizational and management issues.

Written by Mamusha Lemma (PhD), LIVES.