International Development Grant
Improving Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers
Project Number: CA-3-A032142001
Status: Closed
Country/Region:
Maximum Contribution: $19,388,450.00
Start Date: June 18, 2004
End Date: June 09, 2015
Duration: 11.0 years
Project Description
The project aims to increase agricultural productivity and improved livelihoods for people in rural areas by building capacity for market-oriented agricultural production. The project assists farmers community organizations and public institutions to develop innovative methods to produce high value crops such as honey beans and teff and livestock such as sheep and goats. The project focuses on building connections between smallholder farmers in order to increase their negotiating power access to processing facilities and access to market information thereby increasing their potential to earn a higher income. The project also works to improve the quality of farm products their storage and processing in order to ensure a higher price at market. Linking farmer groups and small-scale local traders with larger wholesale processing and export marketing groups are also part of the strategy. The project also works with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Agricultural Technical and Vocational Training Centers to develop training opportunities for market-oriented farming.
Progress & Results Achieved
The following are some highlights of cumulative results achieved over the life of the project. A total of 32 500 (including 6 825 women) farmers and other value chain actors participated directly in Value Chain capacity development activities thereby allowing them to improve productivity and quality of agricultural commodities. Results include the gross annual production value of banana increasing from zero to an estimated Ethiopian to almost $140 000 per year in Metema pilot learning district. Annual upland rice production in Fogera pilot learning district grew from 0 hectares (ha) to 5 000 ha with an estimated gross production value of over $5.5 million. In Ada’a pilot district the introduction of high yielding export chickpea varieties was adopted by the majority of farmers and now represents 80% of production. Yield per hectare has also doubled. Annual production of certified onion seeds in Fogera by 150 farmers when from 0 metric tons to 20.5 metric tons and is valued at almost $450 000. Cereal production in other pilot learning districts especially teff increased 2.5 times as a result of the introduction of a new variety of seeds and seed multiplication system. For irrigated vegetables area/production in all 10 pilot districts has increased between 60% to 200%. Finally IPMS and its partners documented project findings in 31 working papers 77 articles 19 commodity value chain case studies 9 videos and 7 project brochures. Documents are published on the IPMS website for use in and outside Ethiopia which on average has 4 500 unique visitors each month. Also over 70 thousand hard copy publications and 2 000 DVDs were distributed. The project sponsored and/or supervised over 130 M.Sc. thesis research studies on themes/topics of which 100 are posted on the project website in English.
Key Information
Executing Agency:
ILRI - International Livestock Research Institute
Reporting Organization:
Global Affairs Canada
Program:
WGM Africa
Last Modified:
September 19, 2025
Development Classifications
DAC Sector:
Aid Type: Contributions to specific-purpose programmes and funds managed by implementing partners
Collaboration: Bilateral
Finance Type: Aid grant excluding debt reorganisation
Selection Mechanism:
Pre-APP